Winter splendor

Mother Nature provided a picture perfect start to 2021, with a beautiful coating of frost on the trees. Meteorologists explain the coating of tiny white needles is called rime ice.  Fog is made up of tiny water droplets, and when temperatures are below freezing, like they were over the weekend, those droplets will freeze to solid surfaces like trees, creating the beautiful needles of rime ice. Due to the lack of wind, the frost remained for days and provided the perfect winter backdrop for Kayla Eide, of Mason City, as she ice-skated in front of the downtown Sea Wall Sunday.-Reporter photo by Chris Barragy.