Stunning pictures of rare 'hair ice' crystals looking like 'candy floss' in Scots wood

dailyrecord.co.uk:

With the cold snap continuing to bite this month, and with much of the country expecting to be hit with snow tomorrow, we are no strangers to seeing wintry weather.But some weather phenomenons are rarer than others and may not have been seen before.A series of incredible photos of one such wintry occurrence were captured by an eagle-eyed hiker.In December 2017, Wilma Stark was on a trip to Dunkeld, Perthshire, when she caught a glimpse of a candy floss-like white ice.Wilma, then 62, was walking through the woods when she spotted the 'hair ice' - tiny, slky, hair-like ice, which usually forms on moist, rotting wood from broadleaf trees when temperatures are slightly under 0°C and the air is humid.Wilma from Glenrothes, Fife, said: "I was absolutely stunned, it looked just like candy floss. "I knew it was ice, but it was curling over parts of the tree branches.

I have never seen anything like it before. It was dotted all around the woods.Logs are the perfect material for making hair ice as they soak up and hold moisture when it rains - something which happens all too often in Scotland.Their rotting, spongy interiors fill up with water and when the cold weather hits, before the log has dried out, the water freezes and extends out of the wood's pores.This creates the fine threads of ice that give the appearance of cotton candy, if enough crystals break through.Scientists say the presence of fungi in the wood also helps push the ice through those little pores. Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.