Persistent fog leads to pesky—yet beautiful—rime ice on the Prairies
Rime ice - a phenomenon that occurs when supercooled water droplets found in freezing fog come into contact with an object that is below freezing - is weighing down power lines on the Prairies.
As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd
As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of Jenny Hagan LostInSk on Twitter: "As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd / Twitter" in the west central area of Jenny Hagan LostInSk on Twitter: "As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd / Twitter" is causing power issues Jenny Hagan LostInSk on Twitter: "As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd / Twitter" Jenny Hagan LostInSk on Twitter: "As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd / Twitter"
— Jenny Hagan LostInSk (@LostInSk) Jenny Hagan LostInSk on Twitter: "As beautiful as it is, this heavy frost due to the extended period of #fog in the west central area of #Saskatchewan is causing power issues #skstorm pic.twitter.com/gvTcpawmxd / Twitter"
Causing power issues here in south central AB too! pic.twitter.com/bfwhqKDrRp
Causing power issues here in south central AB too! Shanyn Silinski on Twitter: "Causing power issues here in south central AB too! pic.twitter.com/bfwhqKDrRp / Twitter"
— Shanyn Silinski (@MysticShanyn) Shanyn Silinski on Twitter: "Causing power issues here in south central AB too! pic.twitter.com/bfwhqKDrRp / Twitter"
Jay of the day in the frosty tree...beautiful structures in the frost which I suspect is rime ice as we've had lots of foggy days and nights...🤔 pic.twitter.com/U4z3iVWi9f
Jay of the day in the frosty tree...beautiful structures in the frost which I suspect is rime ice as we've had lots of foggy days and nights...🤔 Deb Maluk 🇨🇦🇺🇦🕊 on Twitter: "Jay of the day in the frosty tree...beautiful structures in the frost which I suspect is rime ice as we've had lots of foggy days and nights...🤔 pic.twitter.com/U4z3iVWi9f / Twitter"
— Deb Maluk 🇨🇦🇺🇦🕊 (@dmaluk1) Deb Maluk 🇨🇦🇺🇦🕊 on Twitter: "Jay of the day in the frosty tree...beautiful structures in the frost which I suspect is rime ice as we've had lots of foggy days and nights...🤔 pic.twitter.com/U4z3iVWi9f / Twitter"
The conditions are courtesy of persistent fog. On Wednesday morning, fog advisories were in place for parts of Saskatchewan.
SaskPower reported several pockets of outages Wednesday but did not explicitly state the cause.
This wouldn't be the first time hoar frost has caused problems in the area.
Multiple days of fog and freezing fog on the central Prairies in early December 2018 resulted in more than 30,000 calls from Saskatchewan residents, reporting power outages.
More about rime ice
Thumbnail image: Wikipedia/softrime2006) CC BY 2.5
