Welcome to the North Pole...
...Well not really. But it sure looks like it in some parts of my immediate environment. I live on the South Fork of the East End of Long Island: it's a peninsula that sticks eastward out into the Atlantic Ocean. Now, hold your left hand out in front of you with your palm facing you. Look at the fore and middle fingers. I live about 3/4 of an inch on the middle finger from where your fingers form a V at your palm. Between your two fingers is the Peconic Bay, and below your middle finger is, of course the ocean.
I took the image below yesterday afternoon. I live right up the street from the Peconic Bay, this is what it looks like in January. Because it's tidal, and because we have a big tide here, there is alot of ice movement even when the salt water is frozen.
The other two images are from the ocean beach which is about a five minute drive from my house. Since it snowed earlier this week, it's been real cold with a lot of northerly wind. There hasn't been much thawing, and the wind has been sculpting the drifting snow. I've always loved bundling up and going out onto the beach and into the dunes for a couple hour's walk. Looking both at the ocean and especially the frozen bay, it's hard to imagine swimming in it in another five and-a-half months.
