Swiss athletes jump over ice numbers on the rare 'black ice' on Heid Lake in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on December 30. Because of the lack of snow, the ice on hundreds of Alpine lakes this winter has been glass-clear, reflecting the dark waters below -- a phenomenon that was last observed nearly thirty years ago in the Alps.
A swimmer dives into a pool cut in the frozen riverbank at a winter swimming competition during 33rd ice and snow world festival to celebrate the new year in Harbin, China, on January 5, 2017.
Festive ice swimmers dressed in Christmas-themed gear wade into Obersee Lake during their annual pre-Christmas swim on December 18 in Lanke, Germany. This year temperatures remained above freezing. According to eyewitnesses the last time the swimmers actually had to tredge trhough snow and ice was five or six years ago.
A surfer looks at the Northern lights ( aurora borealis ) illuminating the sky over the snow covered beach of Unstad, on Lofoten Islands, Arctic Circle, on March 14, 2016. Surfers from all over the world come to Lofoten island to surf in extreme conditions. Ocean temperature is 5-6 °C, air temperature around 0°C .
Tourists enjoy snowfall with selfies in Tangmarg some 45kms north from Srinagar. The upper reaches of the region experienced snowfall while plans witnessed rainfall, ending the longest dry spell.
Snow falls at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, near Tokyo, on November 24. Tokyo residents woke up on the day to the first November snowfall in more than 50 years.
A cross-country skier competes on a thin layer of snow towards the Goms Valley, near Ulrichen, Switzerland on December 26, 2016. Switzerland just experienced its driest December in more than 150 years and one of its driest months on record. Many places in the west of the country did not see a single snowflake or drop of rain. The Swiss plains get nearly 90 mm of precipitation on average in December
People dressed as Ded Moroz, or Old Man Frost, the Slavic equivalent of Santa Claus, and his grandaughter, the Snow Maiden, take part in the contest "Yolka-fest-2016" (Fir-festival-2016) in Minsk, Belarus on December 9, 2016.
Artists work on snow sculptures at an exhibition in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China, on December 13, 2016. The city in China's frigid northeast is in its final stages of preparation for one of the world's largest ice and snow festivals, an annual event that last year drew more than a million visitors.
