THE sudden cold snap in Herefordshire has surprised many of us.

But this really is a sight to take your breath away!

Jane Hufton, a member of the Hereford Times Camera Club, spotted this extraordinary pattern on the iced-up rear windscreen of a car at Hampton Charles, near Bromyard.

The twisting lines of ice are similar to the branches of a tree, and prompted Jane — who was with a friend when she took the picture – to say: "We were amazed. It looks like the Tree of Life."

Hereford Times: Tree of Life symbol from a synagogue in Estonia. Based on a photograph by User:FLLL; the design was extracted and vectorized by User:???????????., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsTree of Life symbol from a synagogue in Estonia. Based on a photograph by User:FLLL; the design was extracted and vectorized by User:???????????., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Tree of Life is a symbol common in many cultures that represents the interconnectedness of everything. Illustrations often show its branches snaking in patterns similar to those on Jane's icy car window.

It is not uncommon to see attractive leaf-like patterns on frozen windscreens rather than just a sheet of frost.

They are caused by tiny imperfections in the glass – scratches, specks of dust and salt, or the remains of washer fluid.

These surface variations affect the way that ice crystals form and branch out, sometimes into curious patterns like this.