Abstract
DURING cold fogs the accumulation of ice on the branches of trees due to the contact of water particles with solid substances, frequently causes damage to timber in the Continental forests: not often, I think, in this country. No snow has fallen here until to-day since October 2, 1888, but anticyclonic frost has been on several occasions accompanied by fogs of unusual density. During the frost of last week, ice-crystals of about 2 inches in length, at first very hard and adhesive, were formed on the windward (south-south-west) side of all exposed objects, but particularly on metal, even at no greater height than 3 or 4 feet above the earth's surface. This is a common sight on the higher hills even in the British Isles, but at this altitude (460 feet above mean sea-level) appears to be rare. The result has been great injury to timber, and a great “wind-fall,” without much wind, to the tenant-farmers. Of deciduous trees, the ash seems to have suffered the most, while little damage, so far as I have observed, has been received by the ornamental conifers which usually suffer so much from snow. It is impossible to estimate, with much approach to accuracy, the amount of moisture drawn from the atmosphere in this rime, but during the thaw we measured 41/2 inches of ice-crystals on the ground on the leeward side of a rather spare elm-tree 39 feet in height, while the boughs above this surface, on the leeward side, still retained their exquisite robe of rime.
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LEY, A. A Remarkable Rime. Nature 39, 270 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039270d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039270d0
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