Moisture and cold creating beautiful and potentially dangerous frost

Some beautiful frost has settled onto just about everything that's outdoors overnight, thanks to a bit of moisture in the air.

From frost patterns that need to be scraped off cars to trees filled with frost that falls like snow later in the day, it's definitely a change from the usual flat frost that comes with cold temperatures.

The small structures, known as rime ice, pop up due to a unique weather system that is currently hanging over the southeast.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Terri Lang explains just what the inversion system does to create that frost.

"The moisture tends to get trapped under what we call an inversion. That means the temperature is colder at the surface, but actually increases as you go through the atmosphere, which is the opposite of what it usually does. What that inversion does is it traps any moisture that's floating around."

While many attribute the rime to hoarfrost, that's actually specifically only when the frost patterns appear while there's a clear sky, not when there's fog in the air.

"What happens with the fog is it tends to produce what we call rime icing. So the moisture comes out of the fog and it attaches itself to anything it can," said Lang, "So that's cars - so you have to scrape your car, even if those frost patterns are pretty, trees, that type of thing."

While the patterns can often be pretty, they do also pose a threat to some infrastructure that can get weighed down.

"Makes for very nice pictures, but extended periods of rime icing can actually be detrimental because if it goes on too long it builds up too much on the power lines and that type of thing," said Lang, "So it can actually lead to some issues. Hopefully, it won't last too long, and just make more pretty pictures than problems."