Tuesday 8 February 2011

Frost smoke on the River Don


The December cold spell showed the River Don as a ribbon of frost smoke.  Although lots of ice was floating downstream, the water was sufficiently warmer than the frigid air pooling in the valley to form banks of mist close to the water.




Even at the height of the day with the solstice sun very low in the sky, the mist peristed as a thin and shifting veil.  I normally delete any images with flare in them, but this one shows so well the effect of the sun lighting the thin mist with a luminous glow.



As the sun set with a pink glow along the western horizon, the bitingly cold air began to sink once again into the slot of the rive valley in a dense freezing cloak.

It would be another bitter cold night.