Frost On Roof Above Freezing
All official temperatures are observed about 6 feet off the ground.
Frost on roof above freezing. In cold climates it occurs in a greater variety of forms. The plot below shows a 24 hour trace of the temperature measured at 0 5 meters above the ground in blue at 2 meters above the ground in red and at 3 meters above. There is ample air movement around it. You also see frost on the rooftops of houses on nights when the temperature never goes below freezing.
When the temperature of the air goes below the dew point the air is supersaturated with water vapour and some of it condenses out into dew liquid or if it is cold enough into frost solid. If the morning sun directly hits your home and not your neighbors lack of frost may just be attributed to the sun s heat. It forms frost on the inside top of the door and also where the door touches the freezer when closed. Have you ever wondered why frost can form on nights when the temperatures only fall to 36 or 37 degrees.
Your motorbike radiated more upwards then the sky above you radiated downwards the sun had gone so the motor bike lost heat and its temperature dropped. If the dew point is below freezing the water vapor condenses as ice freezing as frost. However if nothing is different about your home compared to your neighbors you may have a problem. The kentucky mesonet recently added some extra temperature sensors at varying heights that show just why this could occur.
We bought a sears kenmore frost free upright freezer model 26732 in jan 07. Get shopping advice from experts friends and the community. It s in the unfinished basement under a stairwell that is unfinished. So the air can be above freezing and the surface of your car or the roof of your house can be colder than the air and colder than freezing causing a frost even though the air temperature is above freezing.
If you were measuring 35 degrees several feet up you might find the lawn temperature where the coldest air settled to be 31 or 32 degrees which is cold enough for frost to form. Every warm object loses energy by radiating electromagnetic energy e g infrared photons. In temperate climates it most commonly appears on surfaces near the ground as fragile white crystals. A2 the ground or any surface must be at or below 32 for frost to form.
Since official weather measurements are taken in an instrument shelter four to five feet above the ground frost can form even when the official temperature is above freezing. That is how we get a frost without a freeze. How can the temperature stay above freezing but areas of frost still occur. Before getting concerned you need to make sure the lack of frost is due to the roof itself and not from outside forces.