Frozen Beach



Even after the thaw we had last week, the shelf ice on Lake Michigan remains. In places it's almost 20 feet tall where the waves piled up the chunks of flow ice. From this perspective, it appears the beach continues for a few hundred feet toward the lighthouse, but in fact, I'm standing at the shore, everything you see is ice. The waves and wind have deposited sand on top of the shelf ice, making it look like an extension of the beach. While the ice may be several feet thick in places, it's likely there are areas less than an inch thick, making it deadly to walk upon.

Here's the same area only a few months before:
Soon it Will Be Frozen

St. Joseph, Michigan

1 comment:

Anthony C said...

Amazing. With the sand visible, I never would have known this wasn't regular beach. Thank you for your repeated warnings about the danger of ice shelves.