Freezing Fog Leads to Frosty Scenes Monday Morning

Freezing fog Monday morning left quite a bit of frost on Stateline trees.  This frost, known as 'Hoar Frost' forms when water molecules come into contract with a subfreezing surface, such as blades of grass, tree branches or a fence.  When this occurs, the water molecules go from a gas state to a solid state very quickly.  This is known as deposition.

In order to get any frost to develop, you need moisture in the atmosphere.  Late Sunday night into Monday morning fog developed as moisture became trapped in the lower levels of the atmosphere.  Since temperatures were roughly ten degrees below freezing (32 degrees), freezing fog developed.  At least one or more nights of freezing fog is a perfect recipe for the development of hoar frost.

Conditions may be very similar Monday night so the possibility of not only dense fog to develop, but freezing fog, is there as well.  Be on the look out on the roads Tuesday morning, but also for those frosty trees!