Snow and Sunshine, Barton-On-Sea, Hampshire - January 7th, 2010

Winter 2009/10 has been one of the coldest for 20 years in the UK, although much of the cold and snow avoided this part of the country. However for a short time in early January, conditions were perfect for wintery scenes. On the 6th, around 3.5cm of snow fell across this area, and much of the UK was covered in a white blanket. The following day dawned bright and clear, and by lunchtime the snow was still thick on the ground, not melting in the sunshine at all - very rare for Southern England! The first shot is from a sideroad near to the front. Roads were very icy and you were lucky to get 5mph anywhere:

Although the snow doesn't look deep by many people's standards, I haven't seen conditions like this for at least 15 years around here. The temperature was around -2°C at 1 p.m:

This image shows how leathal the roads were, with lots of hard-packed ice and snow:

The snow extended right down to the beach, and plenty of people (and dogs!) had clearly got there before me:

Some good views out to sea:

The side roads reminded me of old photographs of historic cold winters of the past: