EMPIRE, MI – It takes a certain set of brutal winter weather conditions to create ice balls on the Great Lakes.
Ice balls developed this week at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore after multiple consecutive days of sub-freezing air temperatures combined with wind coming off the water. The phenomenon is a natural progression of those weather conditions, weather officials said, with ice balls sloshing around in the frigid Lake Michigan waters.
Watch a video of the conditions here: Ice balls crash along Lake Michigan shore
“Because it’s so bitter cold, you get your initial ice formation just off the shore, probably pretty thin ice. Often, it’s like a pancake type of ice. And you get a little bit of snow on that and slush forms,” said meteorologist Mike Boguth, of the National Weather Service station in Gaylord, Michigan.
“As the waves roll in, it’s just like building a snowman. The waves take that slush, and they roll it up and because it’s so cold, that stuff is freezing as it’s rolling. It’s like you’re building a snowman from the wave action interacting with that kind of wet, slushy snow.”
Large ice balls bob in the frigid water of Otter Creek within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Those types of conditions persisted across the up north region for as much as a week or more, Boguth said, save for one night last week when overnight temperatures crested the freezing point.
National park officials reported online the afternoon of Jan. 20 that no ice had yet built up along the shoreline. But conditions were far different a few short, cold days later.
This week, ice balls of various sizes were spotted near the mouth of Otter Creek at the Esch Road beach within the national park in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula.
The curiosity often lures park visitors to the frozen shoreline, where shelf ice can develop.
Large ice balls form near the mouth of Otter Creek at Esch Road beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Officials warn shelf ice can be dangerous.
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project reported shelf ice can be unstable, and those who climb onto the often slippery ice mounds risk falling through holes or thin ice and drowning in freezing waters.
The organization tracks drownings in the Great Lakes; officials report 1,044 people drowned in the Great Lakes since 2010, most in Lake Michigan.
Related articles:
Ice on Great Lakes is expanding, expected to peak in typical range
Ice on Great Lakes starting to expand with recent Arctic blasts
Man rescued from ice floe on Muskegon Lake
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