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:
“... anybody is as their land and air is. Anybody is as the sky is low or high, the air heavy or clear and anybody is as there is wind or no wind there. It is that which makes them and the arts they make and the work they do and the way they eat and the way they drink and the way they learn and everything.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Like the water, the Walden ice, seen near at hand, has a green tint, but at a distance is beautifully blue, and you can easily tell it from the white ice of the river, or the merely greenish ice of some ponds, a quarter of a mile off.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)