Frozen Laundry

It's been really warm here for a couple of weeks. Highs well into the 50s. Lots of mud. This morning before work, I hung some clothes out on the line because the forecast finally suggests we might get some clear weather and, frankly, I'm almost out of clean undies.

Now it's snowing all over my laundry. This photo wasn't taken today, it was taken a few weeks ago in a similar situation.

Since I'm not familiar with cold weather, I thought the clothes would freeze and just stay frozen until it got warm again, at which point they'd thaw and eventually dry out.

But no! They dry much faster when the temperatures are below freezing. For one thing, when the wind blows, little ice crystals get blown out of the fabric and carried away on the breeze. And for another thing, ice can evaporate just as well as water can. It's called sublimation. I learned about that in school, but I'd forgotten about it. When the temps dip way down, the air is typically a lot drier than in the summer time, so it accepts the moisture from the clothing more readily.