Rime Ice

(More blog entries from howie)

Not only great foliage colors, but now incredible rime icing too

This has been quite a weekend here in Pinkham Notch and up to the summit.  All kinds of weather from winds as high as 94 mph to heavy fog, rainbows, hail, freezing temps and even sun...  So along with the amazing foliage we've now got a summit that in covered in rime ice, the result of the clouds blowing over the summit during below freezing temperatures.  Looks a lot like the frost you used to get in your freezer in the old days before frost-free was invented.  These are the cloud particles freezing onto any object in the way, so the formations build out into the wind.  We'll see these until the temperatures climb high enough above freezing to melt them.

Arriving at the top.  Because of ice, snow then mud as they melted, we were only able to open to the summit for guided tours today (Sunday).  Hopefully the mud dries out enough to fully open on Monday.

The view just below the clouds near the 7 mile mark.

This is a fantastic time to visit the White Mountains and especially the Auto Road.  See you soon!

Comments

on Oct 5th 2008, 4:21 pm

Re: Rime Ice
by Bob Perry Chief Engineer WHOM/ WPKQ on Oct 8th 2008, 6:52 pm

As always the Mountain is an amazing and beautiful place, that never ceases to outdue itself!