Frosted Web

March 30, 2006

Imgp1300 copy

Provided and copyright: Jeanette Stafford
Summary authors & editors: Jeanette Stafford; Jim Foster

This frosted spider web was photographed near Glasgow, Scotland one late autumn morning. An icy fog coated the landscape with rime ice (or hoar frost) during the night, which persisted well into the morning. Rime is denser than hoar frost and occurs when fog (supercooled water droplets) drapes the subfreezing surface. It looks like this spider evidently made a getaway before being encased in the icy throes of its own web, or perhaps it just has no interest in frozen foods.

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