Depending on your perspective, it was either eerie or beautiful Tuesday morning in Grand Forks.
The look of the landscape was thanks to hoarfrost, or the tiny, solid water vapor that crystallizes when the temperature is below freezing on certain surfaces, such as tree branches and other vegetation.
"The warm temperatures last week put additional moisture into the lower atmosphere, which turned into that fog and froze to those branches," said Peter Rogers of the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks.
Some Grand Forks residents may remember a similar scene shortly before a blizzard in 1997 when the Red River flooded. Rogers said there is no meteorological proof that hoarfrost is a precursor to heavy snow.
