While winter may cause people in the north to endure exceptionally tough conditions at times, this season also provides an untouchable beauty. After a night of temperatures that reached below 0^○F, I quickly fed some frosty animals on my farm and tried to ignore the biting sting in my fingers; then, I stopped in awe! I hadn’t noticed the astonishing wonderland that surrounded me. Throughout the night, crystals had formed all over the farm. The trees were caked in sparkling beauty and there were fan-shaped crystals covering sticks and objects on the ground below. As painful as my fingers were, I took out my camera and took some pictures of these crystals and the stunning white paradise.

How do these crystals form and what causes them?

I figured these crystals were some kind of frost but I had to do some research to be sure!

From what I read, the crystals pictured are either hoarfrost (a type of frost) or rime ice.

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