Is this what Frosty the Snowman is named for?

By Aaron Horrell

This month's weather has provided a number of mornings replete with frost. I went out one of those mornings looking for a good photo of frost. And I found it!

I discovered what I was looking for along a low-lying stretch of real estate near a pond. The air was cold and wind was calm in this area. Light frost had formed on grass and fallen autumn leaves during the night. But I was hoping to find thicker frost.

I followed an old fence a short distance when suddenly there it was, mere inches off the ground, where an oak leaf had wrapped on the bottom fence wire. Small shards of ice had formed closely together on both the leaf and the wire. Some of the shards were about 1/2 inch long. I laid on the ground and carefully took this photo. The slightest movement of either the leaf or the wire would have shaken away the frost.

Frost forms on objects close to the ground when those objects have moisture on them and the temperature of the air falls below 32 degrees. When the moisture freezes, it turns to little shards of ice that slowly push outward from the object. I think Frosty the Snowman was named after this kind of frost.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!