Hard Rime Ice Unfolds Across Parts of Southern Estonia! (credit: Meteo Europe)

DISCUSSION: As a large winter storm continued progressing across much of western  and central Europe, there were major impacts felt across many parts of Europe.  More specifically, across central/south-central Europe, there was quite an extensive hard rime icing event which unfolded as several circumstances came into play at the same time.  There factors included very cold (i.e., well-below freezing) temperatures being in place along with the presence of substantial atmospheric water vapor content which created ideal conditions for the formation of rime ice.  Rime ice forms as a result of the water droplets located in fog (or freezing fog) freezing onto the outer surfaces of various objects.  In this particular case, the water droplets froze onto the outer surfaces of various trees located throughout this forest located in Kääriku, Estonia.  Though rime ice can look quite scenic in situations such as this, it can also be incredibly dangerous as a result of it causing travel delays both on the ground (e.g., cars, trains, etc.) and in the air (e.g., commercial/private aviation, helicopters, etc.).  

To learn more about other high-impact weather events occurring across Europe, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz