looks like snow...

What looks like snow from a distance ... but isn't

Tykky

While the UK and other parts of Europe seem to be stuck in "deep snow" here in Finland life goes quietly on with about the same amount of snow (perhaps a little more) as them.

Seems as good a time as any to discuss a kind of thing which we get here (more mainly in Lapland) which looks like snow but isn't.

It goes by the name of Tykky here.

The snowy cover on the trees in my front yard carpark is not infact snow, but is in fact a sort of ice crystal that grows on something cold. It seems to happen when the temperature is warming slightly, say from -20 to -10°C and the air conditions are very still.



You can see the classic snowflake shapes forming here, and if you look to the bottom of the gooseneck you can see one edge on ... they really are thin.

Pretty soon it can fester the entire thing its on ... tree or bike




this may look like snow, but its Tykky.

From a distance it looks like the object has been gently peppered with snow, but doesn't have the same look as road signs which have been hit by snow thrown up by trucks. Its light and fluffy. You can see it is a growth of crystals here even on this dead leaf when you get up close...



You can see it here too on the back of this tree ... of course it looks lovely on the trees

so now you know a new word in Finnish