Clear ice refers to a solid precipitation which forms when air temperature is between 0 °C (32 °F) and -3 °C (27 °F) and there are supercooled, relatively large drops of water (from freezing fog). A rapid accretion and a slow dissipation of latent heat of fusion favor the formation of a transparent ice coating, without air or other impurities.
A similar phenomenon occurs when freezing rain or drizzle hit a surface and is called glaze.
Clear ice, when formed on the ground, is often called black ice, and can be extremely hazardous.
Clear ice is denser and more homogeneous than hard rime; like rime, however, clear ice accumulates on branches and overhead lines, where it is particularly dangerous due to its relative high density.
Famous quotes containing the words clear and/or ice:
“Strange that the mind will forget so much of what only this moment has passed, and yet hold clear and bright the memory of what happened years ago with men and women long since dead.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“Will lovely, lively, virginal today
Shatter for us with a wing’s drunken blow
This hard, forgotten lake haunted in snow
By the sheer ice of flocks not flown away!”
—Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898)