How very cool. I couldn't begin to explain how that ice formed. Thanks for the pictures. Barry
--- On Sat, 12/26/09, Elisa Campbell <[email protected]> wrote: From: Elisa Campbell <[email protected]> Subject: [ENTS] magical morning To: [email protected] Cc: "Elisa Campbell" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, December 26, 2009, 1:55 PM On Christmas morning I hiked up part of the Mt Holyoke Range in the middle portion of the Connecticut River valley of Massachusetts. The weather was foggy - as I approached the range, I couldn't see any mountains at all. Apparently during the night the air was both humid and warmer than the trees - creating the most amazing ice show I've ever seen. I don't have a GPS, but based on the maps, it was between about 450 feet above sea level and the ridge (about 700 feet - these are small "mountains"!) in the places where the sun had not had any effect. It wasn't like when we get freezing rain and it looks as if the twigs have been encased in glass; instead, there were millions of little ice crystals attached to things like spikes, thorns, or needles; some were attached to each other, forming a dangling chain like a Christmas tree decoration (harder to photograph with my little pocket camera). Beech branches looked as if they had sprouted a multitude of protective spiky thorns. Here are some of the photos I got. I hope you enjoy them. (and if you have any comments on how it happened, I'd be delighted to hear them!) woods3_hemlock1-v-e.jpg - the overall look of the woods beech-leaf-close2A-e.jpg - some of the beech leaves that caught our eyes beech-leaf-close1crop-h-3.jpg -- closeup of some beech leaves beech leaf-close1-v-3.jpg - more closeups of beech leaves beech-leaves1crop-h-e.jpg - a bunch of leaves and the trunk (if you look closely, you may see a free-dangling "string" of ice crystals near the trunk) This morning, all the crystals were off the trees, but some were still visible on the ground, rocks and leaves where the sun had not hit them On the ground, they look more like very small grains of rice. -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
