When the country freezes, liquid inputs to the hydrological cycle are severely reduced as all the precipitation is locked in snow and ice on the surface. As a result, the levels of lakes and rivers drop, which can cause ice on the edges to become grounded and stranded where there once was water. The most spectacular example of this I have ever seen was at Andersön, Sweden, where a bouldery lake bed lifted the ice high enough to create a void that a person could quite easily fit into and you could crawl beneath the lake ice. It wasn't so pleasant to be under there as the boulders were greasy and didn't smell the best, but the ice was fantastic, and still thick enough to support a person, so you could crawl under and see the shadows of people walking on top!
To top off the exciting phenomenon, a thin cirrostratus layer presented a magnificent solar halo.
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