It is known that frost formation on surfaces of the heat exchanger seriously affects the performance of the refrigeration system. Accordingly, defrosting should follow, and effective defrosting is possible only when both analytic tools and comprehensive experimental data on frost formation are assailable. An experimental investigation was undertaken to characterize the effect of environmental parameters on frost formation on a horizontal cylinder in cross uniform flow. Several experiments were carried out with various environmental parameters such as inlet air temperature, inlet air humidity, air velocity and cooling surface temperature. Frost thickness, mass, surface temperature and cylinder inner and outer temperature were measured at front and rear positions of the cylinder. Thickness, mass, density, and effective thermal conductivity of the frost layer were obtained from measured data and effects of environmental parameters on the frost formation were analyzed. Data from experiments were correlated using dimensionless variables.