Where are the ice balls on Lake Michigan?
You can thank the National Weather Service of Grand Rapids for first reporting the ice volcanoes erupting on Lake Michigan. Grand Rapids is close to Oval Beach, the Lake Michigan beach where these strange ice volcanoes appear.
What causes ice balls on Lake Michigan?
Ice balls form when turbulent water near the shore breaks up a layer of slushy ice, according to CNN Weather. The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said Friday that it “finally got cold enough” for the ice balls to form on Lake Michigan. A brutal arctic blast in the Midwest triggered the phenomenon.
What are ice balls in the lake?
Ice boulders form when cold chunks break from ice sheets, and the movements of a lake’s waves sculpt those pieces into rounder shapes. The balls can also accrue more layers of ice, growing large.
Where can I see ice balls?
Ice balls are generally found in the Great Lakes and Antarctica, where there are rolling waves and low temperatures. However, similar ice boulders have been spotted along shorelines in California and Russia as well.
Where is the blue ice in Michigan?
Straits of Mackinac
Ice shards, glittering a hue of blue, rip from the frozen water at Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac. This natural phenomenon attracts locals, tourists and photographers, who hope to capture the perfect moment when the sun hits the frozen water just right, allowing the bright blue ice to shine vividly.
Did Lake Michigan freeze over?
In records dating from the middle 1800s, even in the coldest winters, Lake Michigan has never completely frozen over. It has been as much as 90 percent or more ice-covered in 1903-04, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1998-99 and 2013-14, but the lake is a massive reservoir of heat that is released only slowly into the air.
Why do ice balls form?
Ice balls usually are a precursor to ice sheets building along the banks of Lake Michigan. They form as a slushy frazil ice collects on the surface of the water and begins crashing around. As the slushy ice is rolled around by the waves of the lake, it eventually cements together as a rolling ball.
What are ice balls?
Ice pellets are a form of precipitation consisting of small, translucent balls of ice. Ice pellets are different from graupel (“soft hail”) which is made of frosty white rime, and from a mixture of rain and snow which is a slushy liquid or semisolid.
What happens when the temperature of Lake Michigan is below freezing?
The sun comes out in the afternoon and melts the snow. But the road is still wet when the sun sets, and as the temperature drops below freezing, that water solidifies into an almost imperceptibly thin layer of ice. That’s black ice.
Does Mackinaw City still have blue ice?
MACKINAW CITY, MI – Michigan’s fascinatingly beautiful blue ice has returned. The blue shards became a social media phenomenon in 2016. Since then, we’ve been on the lookout for their appearance. The Straits of Mackinac is a well-known place to spot this marvel – and 2021 is no different.