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Continued Flood and Rip Current Risk from Chantal; Lingering Flood Watches in Central Texas

Chantal now a Tropical Depression. Flash flood concerns continue across portions of central North Carolina into Monday. Life-threatening surf and rip currents conditions are expected to continue at beaches along the U.S. east coast from northeastern Florida to the Mid-Atlantic states during the next day or so. Flood Watches and recovery continue across central Texas. Read More >

With abundant fog around this winter, the Inland Northwest has seen its share of rime development. These photos, depicting quite large growth of the frost was taken outside our office during the third week of January.

Rime

By definition, rime is a deposit of interlocking ice crystals formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches.

The deposition of rime is different than the process in which frost is formed. In the case of rime, the object and the air are both below freezing and liquid drops (e.g. fog) must be present. For frost, the object itself must be below freezing but the air can be above freezing. Also, water vapor (not droplets) are the source of moisture, so frost forms on clear cold nights.

Rime at NWS Spokane