Deep Snow and Freezing Fog, New Forest - December 3rd, 2010 (Pt 1)

With another day off work due to snow and ice, I took the opportunity to head to the Forest. This was probably the deepest snow I've ever seen here (been living here for 25 years) and provided some very wintry scenes. The first stop was near Wootton. The conifers and gorse made it look almost like the Arctic:

The view down the road towards The Rising Sun:

The Sun was breaking through in places, giving a very unusual light. Note the snow caught falling off one of the trees as a gust of wind caught it. The snow was very dry and powdery - very unusual for Southern England! The temperature was around -4.5°C at 1 p.m.:

Some freezing fog earlier in the day had deposited a thick hoar frost on the trees:

Looking back at my footprints in the fresh powder snow:

The next location was Burley. Even the road signs were snow-covered:

Due to the earliness of the snow, many of the trees still had a full set of leaves on them, making an unusual scene: