Why Your Car Wasn’t Frozen This Morning: The Science Behind Winter Weather in Belgium

2024-01-08 09:40:51

par lauren soukiassian

The cold is making a comeback in Belgium with negative temperatures throughout the country. Why weren’t your car windows frozen this morning?

With the cold normally comes the return of frost. We therefore know that it is better to allow an extra five minutes in the morning before leaving to scrape the windshield. This morning however, despite temperatures below 0 across the country, the car was not covered in frost. How to explain it?

Why wasn’t the car frozen this morning?

On the IRM website, we find the scientific explanation of this phenomenon. Whether or not frost forms is a question of the quantity of water vapor in the atmosphere and the temperature.

Atmospheric water can be in gaseous (water vapor), liquid (water droplets) or solid (ice crystals) form. The state in which the water is found (and therefore whether it turns into frost) will depend on its quantity contained in the atmosphere and the ambient temperature.

When the atmosphere has reached the maximum amount of water vapor it can contain, it is said to have reached its saturation point (for example 9.4 g of water per cubic meter at 10°C). If we increase the quantity of water in a saturated atmosphere, there will be a change of state of the water vapor towards a liquid state (condensation) or towards a solid state (sublimation).

When the quantity of water vapor becomes too great or the temperature decreases, the air will become saturated with water vapor and clouds composed of water droplets and/or ice crystals will form.

If this happens on the ground, fog is created. If the temperature is lower on the ground or on vehicles than in the air, water vapor may condense in the form of dew or in the form of frost. On the contrary, if the vapor pressure of the soil or vehicle is lower than the saturated vapor pressure, there will be neither dew nor frost on cold surfaces.

This is why there was no frost this morning.

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