A rare cold weather phenomenon called ‘hair ice’ was discovered twice Wednesday morning on Vancouver Island.
This soft looking ice structure is actually brittle to the touch.
It is created on dead wood where a certain type of fungus, called Exidiopsis effusa, is found.
The fungus causes the moisture from the wood to freeze in a specific way, forming hair-like ice crystals.
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This only occurs during humid, cold spells when the temperature drops just below zero Celsius.
Each hair-like ice crystal is no more than 0.02 mm in diameter.
Several other unique frost and ice formations were found around B.C. this week.
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