Six on Saturday – 27JAN2024 – Freezing Rain

Chris Mousseau

Many of us have experienced freezing rain. If not, it happens when the temperature at ground level is just below the freezing point, and rain turns to ice when it lands. Very dangerous (ie slippery) to walk or drive on, very dangerous and sometimes devastating if it accumulates on trees and wires (ie it’s so heavy it can just topple things). Overnight Wednesday we had some snow followed by a bit of freezing rain. Enough to cause small branches and twigs to fall, not enough for any damage, and just enough for some lovely wintry scenes early Thursday morning, before the air warmed enough to melt it all.

Here are six of my favourite icy scenes in the garden that morning. Head over to Garden Ruminations to see six things from other gardens around the world.

A chestnut tree bud
Clematis seedheads and vines
Agastache
Staghorn sumac
Rheingold cedar – with leaves turning a bright gold in the winter
My favourite – bent over ornamental grasses

21 Comments

  2. We actually had freezing rain last week and it has been a long time since we had it here in France. Your photos are always admirable and highlight this climatic phenomenon well. Apparently the snow is starting to melt where you live. There is nothing left here…green grass now

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  4. We get ice from time to time — far more often that we ever get snow — and even when it doesn’t bring down power lines, it’s a horror for people who have to travel the freeways or cross bridges. I’m glad yours was better behaved; the photos are lovely. I do like those grasses, but the sumac is very pretty. It looks like a Christmas tree ornament.

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  9. Gads! Weather here is famously mild, but I did happen to experience freezing rain (I believe) in Oklahoma. I opened the front door in the morning to what seemed to be shower door, with textured glass. As I reached to poke at it, my friend who was right behind me yelled, “Don’t touch it!”. It was the screen door coated with ice. I was about to go out the back door, but, because we were in no hurry to be anywhere at the time, I just stayed inside until the ice partially melted, which was prior to noon. The screen door was fine, but a thin but big slab of ice took much of the paint with it when it slid off of the car.

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