Frozen Over - The River Ouse downstream from Redhouse Landing
Last week the River Ouse froze over completely as we continued to experience more arctic temperatures. The ice was a good 2 inches thick near the bank although it did not look nearly so thick towards the middle where thin layers had been piled up by the current and then frozen together. It has been difficult to discover when this last happened to the river - there are reports of the same event occurring in York in 1973 and 1963 and there is definite photographic evidence of it happening in 1947 and again in 1940. The suggestion is that complete freeze overs were a lot more frequent (it is not unusual for the water near the sides of the river to freeze in winter) but, after at least 37 years since the last one, it does now seem an event worth reporting.
The big freeze seems to have abated for the moment and grass is beginning to reappear through the snow. The Red House weather station has recorded 17 continuous night frosts (being minus 10 degrees or less on 6 occasions) and 3 days when the temperatures failed to rise above freezing (and many days when it barely even did this).