Lake Tahuya

     I initially discovered this mysterious ice here in 2013. It's called Hair Ice and has reappeared each winter.

     Hair ice is found only in a narrow geographic band of the Northern Hemisphere. Forming on or near the ground when air temps are below freezing but the ground is not frozen, the formation of this ice may depend on the presence of a specific type of fungus.

2016 News: "Rare Hair Ice Found in Scottish National Park"

 

     Hair ice appears on or near the ground when the air temperature is below freezing but the ground is not frozen. When conditions are right, you may notice it forming on plant stems in your garden.

     In a process called Ice Segregation it forms on porous mediums that have contact with the ground such as on dead wood (where it's called hair ice), on plant stems (where it's called ice flowers), and on small stones (pebble ice). When supercooled moisture inside a porous object comes in contact with something frozen on the object's surface, the moisture is drawn toward the surface ice where it freezes, and the ice grows.

 January 2016 from weather dot com:

    Last July, scientists in Germany and Switzerland discovered fungal activity was largely responsible for the ice formation, hypothesizing that the hair ice was created by a fungi-related recrystallisation inhibitor. The fungi species that acts as a catalyst for the phenomenon is Exidiopsis effusa. Rare Hair Ice Spotted in Scottish National Park

More on hair ice, pebble ice and ice flowers