Sea Ice Thickens, Hampshire Coast - January 9th, 2009

Following on from the visit to Keyhaven on the 4th, I decided to head down there again on the 9th. The weather had cleared to sunshine and the previous two nights had been the coldest down here for over 13 years. I went to a local frost hollow about 5 miles inland at the time to experience what is was like in temperatures below -10°C (10-15°F). This is the coldest my car thermometer has read since I've had it. On the mercury thermometer I took, I got a reading of -12.2°C just afterwards. The coldest temperature I've experienced!

The temperature didn't get above freezing all day, despite the sunshine. This footbridge at Keyhaven displayed the fine balance between frost and sunshine:

The ice by the shore was much thicker than it was a few days before:

This is an unusual sight: frost on the shingle beach/bank that makes up Hurst Spit, in the middle of the day, and only a few feet from the English Channel:

A small piece of the Arctic in Hampshire:

A flock of geese flew in for feeding as the tide went out. Shortly after this the cloud returned, so I was lucky with my timing: