Instead of chasing storms, researchers create their own

The sparkling ice spread through a small stand of trees in the White Mountain National Forest so precisely, it could have been applied by Elsa, Disney's Frozen queen. Within the basketball court-size plot, everything glistened. Outside it, branches were bare.

But there's no magic going on at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, just lots of science. Operated by the USDA Forest Service since 1955, the site is now home to a research project to examine the impact of ice storms, the often beautiful but devastating weather events that reshape forests, damage infrastructure and disrupt lives.

The goal is to study how the storms affect the forest and the wildlife that depends on it, and eventually, model the timing and location of future storms.