It’s starting to get frosty around here. Even in these temperate climes, by late October or early November the sheen of frost starts to appear on the rooftops, accompanied by frosty breath and slippery walkways.
While frost might seem like something that makes us turn on the car earlier in the morning and work hard at scraping the windshield, to children it is magic. Little droplets of water have turned into a coating of ice. Sometimes, it even looks like snow, the first sign of which is highly coveted around here.
Explore the cool season with an exploration of frost.
Get a camera with a good zoom, and take frost photos. Put on warm clothes and sturdy footwear, and head outdoors to explore the many beauties of the frost. Hoarfrost is especially nice to photograph. Take pictures of leaves caught in the frost on the ground, spider webs frozen in place, and rooftops and walkways covered in white. Zoom in to take a closer look at the structure of the frost. You’ll see that like snowflakes, the frost is always unique.
If the frost is deep, measure the depth of the frost in different locations. Is it deeper in some places than others? Why is this so? Look around the area for clues. It might be particularly damp, particularly shady, or it might have a lot of damp leaves and needles on the ground.
Learn how frost forms. The ground is cool and the sky is warm, especially in the day time. As the evenings get colder, the air closest to the ground cools off. Dew forms. If the evening is particularly cold, frost forms instead.
When you come back indoors, do a science experiment with a warm drink. You’ll want one anyway. Place a piece of hard plastic above a steaming mug. Check it first to make sure that the steam is not hot enough to burn. Watch as the plastic collects dewdrops. This experiment shows how a temperature difference causes water to change states. Now, place the hard plastic in the freezer. When you take it out later, you’ll have small droplets of water, or frost.
Image Credit: Ivanmarn