Frost Needles

Last Friday night the weather conditions were exactly right at Bogus Lake for growing amazing needles of frost. The ridge was in the clouds most of the night and just below freezing with the slightest breeze bringing moisture up from Lake Superior, over 1,000 feet of elevation below.

These may look like painful cactus spines, but the gentlest breeze would knock them to the ground, and the slightest warmth would melt them to a light coating of dew.

The result was twigs and pine needles covered in delicate hoarfrost up to about 3/4 inch long.

From the looks of it, these ice crystals were growing until they got too heavy to adhere, then would fall to the ground. The forest floor was covered in little piles of frost needles which had tumbled down from above.

Delicate ice crystals littered the forest floor where they got knocked from twigs and needles above.

Of course none of this could last long. A couple hours after I took these photos a snowstorm moved in, and I imagine any remaining frost quickly got knocked to the ground by a combination of wind and being pummeled by snowflakes.