After the rest of the country has been in the grip of ice and snow, Ross has been pretty much snow free but had been cold (down to around -11°C) until 20th December 2010 when from around 10am the snow fell thickly and around 2 to 3 inches fell during the morning and afternoon. The Town's streets were not gritted or salted supposedly because it has no effect below -8°C (although it was only around -5°C).
The ice in front of the Ross Rowing Club was particularly easy to see due to it having broken up and refrozen a number of times meaning that it was well above the water line and having many edges with lots of air within the ice making it appear very "white".
The ice, which is stationary, is in the centre of the river with two channels down the outside with the largest being on the outside of the bend, where the flow is fastest. Apparently the river was completely frozen yesterday after another approx. -10ºC night.
The seagulls seemed quite happy stood on the ice but the ducks and swans were all clearly hoping for someone to come and feed them.
In the middle of the shot below left can be seen the Ice House. This was originally used to store fish in for a local fishmonger back in the 1800s and the ice used to fill it would have come from the river when it froze as seen here.
The ice on the upper side of Wilton Bridge is clearly "white" and visable on the surface but on the lower side of the bridge the ice is clear and hidden just below the surface of the water.
The ducks were stood on the ice below Wilton Bridge.
In the view upstream, the large triangle in the ice is due to the bridge pier. Bricks had been thrown from the bridge onto the ice and had hardly marked the surface which is a good indication of how thick the ice had become.