For all of you suffering from the heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere...

Here is a little of what we are getting down South.

Where I stay we only ever get snow once a decade or so and even then it not much to speak of. Winter came really late but we have had some good frost on the ground in the mornings and icing on vehicles etc in the last week or two.

Frost and snow make for the coolest close up photography.

For instance this photo shows how a scratch or streak on a window will act as the site of condensation/condensation nucleus and freezing of water vapor and then ice crystals will form from there, leaving much of the rest of the surface unscathed.

Condensation nuclei or sites are where the atoms that need to condense or freeze find it most favorable to do so. The surface of the substance at those points most matches the atomic structure of the soon to be formed crystal and so the very smallest crystals form there more easily.

Once some small crystals of H2O have settled on the foreign surface others will naturally follow suit if freezing conditions prevail and so each crystal steadily grows in size.

Depending on the angle of the first layer of crystals the larger crystal may even extend upwards vertically.

or point out in many directions.