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Photos: 10 Feet of Rime Ice at Mount Washington!

Feb 3, 2012; 9:55 AM ET

Mount Washington, N.H., "Home of the World's Worst Weather" (and our own Mount Washington Blog) rarely sees anything that surprises the observers who have recorded the weather there for 80 years. But this week, a photographic treat slowly developed. Over 10 feet of "rime" ice accumulated on their observation tower and other objects. I have used Oloneo PhotoEngine to enhance two photos that they posted to their Facebook page (click for the originals):

I have blogged about this phenomenon before; it happens when atmospheric moisture freezes on contact with objects as it blows by during high winds. Check out the photos above and below, and click here to see the "normal" sign and tower without ice in summer. They write on their Facebook page:

"Our weather tower is somewhere under all that rime. The past few days had temperatures in the "sweet spot" for forming rime (typically 0-25F). As a result, by the time we cleared today (2/2/12), we saw huge "feathers" of rime extending out and up from our tower an average of 10+ feet. So much rime formed on the summit sign that it blocked out our iconic weather tower that normally shows up in the background of images taken from this location; not a common sight to see even for the seasoned Observers up here."

But this photo from 2008 is still my favorite, taken by our blogger Brian Clark -- a "Rime Ice Sunrise."

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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