Tahquamenon Falls in the Deep Freeze

Frozen Falls in February, photo by Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Tahquamenon Falls State Park shares:

If you ever wanted to see the Upper Falls frozen, here is your chance! The water is flowing beneath the ice, but we have never seen the left side frozen over before. Pretty cool!

Cool indeed … downright COLD in fact!

Click to see the photo bigger and to view other photos people took recently, check out several more shots of the falls as they’ve frozen on the Tahquamenon Falls State Park Facebook, and visit the Park’s page at Michigan.gov.

Lots more about the Tahquamenon Falls on Michigan in Pictures!

 

Welcome to Hoth: Record cold weekend for Michigan

Lake Michigan, photo by Frank Wulfers

What can you say about last weekend’s weather? The Elkhart Truth reports:

An Arctic cold front gripped Michigan on Sunday, sending temperatures plunging to minus 27 in the Upper Peninsula and minus 22 in the northern Lower Peninsula and shattering at least five record lows for the date.

The deep freeze came with an easing of the snow and windy conditions that forced a number of Upper Peninsula roads to close Saturday. At 6 a.m., state police announced the reopening of U.S. 2 between Manistique and Rapid River and Michigan 35 between Lathrop and Perkins.

“Both of the roadways closed yesterday and throughout the night due to inclement weather where snow and high winds were causing whiteout conditions,” the state police Negaunee post said in a statement.

…Overnight low temperatures Sunday fell to minus 27 at Newberry in central upper Michigan, the National Weather Service said. It said the low reached minus 22 at Pellston in the northern Lower Peninsula, while Detroit’s low fell to minus 7.

Authorities report record lows were set for the date in Ann Arbor, Flint, Grand Rapids and Monroe and at MBS International Airport in Saginaw County’s Tittabawassee Township.

View Frank’s photo from Cross Village background bigtacular and see more in his slideshow.

More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

PS: Thanks to Moshe Kasher who appeared at the Winter Comedy Festival in Traverse City for the Hoth joke!

Rotten Apples: 2014 Detroit Lions Playoff Edition

The Rotten Apples, photo by Joel Dinda

If you’re a Detroit Lions fan, you’re probably more than a bit dazed by yesterday’s game which had the Lions on the verge of winning their first playoff game in 23 years. Mitch Albom has a column that details the stunning turn of events as the door closed on the Lions’ playoff dreams:

In the end, however, the play everyone was and will be talking about was that pass interference call that suddenly wasn’t. It was third-and-1 with less than nine minutes to go in the game, the Lions at the Dallas 46, clinging to a 20-17 lead. Stafford threw to a 17-yard pass to Brandon Pettigrew (that in itself is a questionable move on third-and-1, isn’t it?) but linebacker Anthony Hitchens made contact and the two went down as the ball bounced away.

A flag was thrown, the crowd groaned, pass interference was called — not just signaled, called, announced, I heard it, I swear! — the ball was spotted and the Lions would have a fresh set of downs and at least makeable field-goal position.

Even the TV announcers on Fox were confirming the pass interference. And then, incredibly, the refs picked the flag up.

You know the rest – shanked punt, Lions’ penalties, Cowboys score, Stafford fumble, season over. My dad always used to say that if the refs beat you with a bad call, you probably beat yourself somewhere along the line by putting yourself in that position, something the Lions did time and again.

Ultimately, I think that Detroit got a lot of breaks through the season and showed that while they have a promising foundation, particularly on defense, they’re not (quite) ready for prime time.

I thought it was pretty cool that Joel posted the perfect pic for how I feel this morning. View it background big and see more in his Winter slideshow.

Snowy Topper

snowy12-28-4, photo by Dan Lockard

What’s on top of your tree this year? Right now in the Absolute Michigan photo group, we’re seeing a ton of snowy owls. While these arctic owls are not found in the summer, we are in their winter range, as the Michigan DNR’s Winter Visitors page shares:

Just because the leaves have fallen from the trees and there is a chill in the air is no reason to put away your binoculars. Winter offers unique viewing opportunities. Many of our summer resident birds migrate to warmer summer climates. Still, there are several species of birds that migrate from Canada and find Michigan the perfect winter temperature. Winter is the only time several of these species can be found in Michigan.

Two of the largest migrants are the snowy owl and the great gray owl. Snowy owls can be found moving into Michigan during winter when the food supply on the arctic tundra is in short supply. Snowy owls have been recorded as far south as Lansing, Michigan. Because they rarely see humans on their northern homes, they are not timid and can be easily viewed for long periods of time.

Friday’s Sault Star reported that about three dozen snowys were sighted during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird count on December 20th. That’s more than average. We’ll know if this is an irruption year after all the bird count numbers are released in January.

View Dan’s photo taken near Muskegon background big and see lots more (including a couple shots of the great gray owl) in his awesome Owls slideshow.

Lots more snowy owl pictures & information (including a couple more by Dan) in the Michigan in Pictures archives!

Root Beer Falls

Tahquamenon Falls, photo by Courtney Cochran

The Tahquamenon Falls are Michigan’s biggest waterfall and quite a sight to see in any season. It draws its name from the distinctive root beer color of the water which is created by the leaching of tannins from the cedar swamps that feed the river.

At its peak flow, the river drains as much as 50,000 gallons of water per second, making it the second most voluminous vertical waterfall east of the Mississippi River after only Niagara Falls.

View Courtney’s photo bigger and see more in her Landscapes slideshow.

Lots more Tahquamenon Falls on Michigan in Pictures!

 

Tale of the tape at Laughing Whitefish Falls

Laughing Whitefish Falls, photo by James Marvin Phelps

GoWaterfalling’s page on the Laughing Whitefish Falls says (in part):

Laughing Whitefish Falls is in the Laughing Whitefish State Park. This is one of the most impressive of Michigan’s waterfalls. I believe it is the highest waterfall in Michigan that is readily visitable.

The falls can be found off of M-94, about 30 miles from Munising or Marquette, and just outside of Chatham…

The waterfall is named for the river. The river is so named because the mouth of the river resembled a laughing fish when viewed by the Ojibwe from Lake Superior.

Get detailed directions at GoWaterfalling.com. They add that later in the year the water flow can get thin enough to be hardly visible!

To answer the question of the height, I found a very cool list of Michigan waterfalls by height at the World Waterfall Database. At 100 feet tall, Laughing Whitefish Falls check in fourth behind:

• Spray Falls – 140′ (towering and incredible – view by Pictured Rocks boat tour or long hike)
• Jasper Falls (125′, midway between Miners Beach & Sand Point along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore shoreline – they say it’s basically a trickle most of the time)
• Houghton Falls (110′, private property/no trespassing! You can click that link for a Michigan in Pictures photo from someone who got permission from the landowner to visit)

View James’ photo on Flickr and see more in his massive Michigan Waterfalls slideshow including a few nice shots of Spray Falls and some waterfall videos!

PS: Just realized that this photo was from way back in 2005! Amazing that I’ve been doing Michigan in Pictures for so long, and that people like James have been supporting me with their photography for so long!

More Michigan waterfalls on Michigan in Pictures.

Fall at Bond Falls

Bond Falls, photo by Yanbing Shi

Some mornings you just want to look out the window at what Michigan weather is up to, stick your fingers in your ears and say “I’M NOT LISTENING TO YOU.”

View Yanbing Shi’s photo background bigtacular and see more of his fall photos.

Lots more from Bond Falls on Michigan in Pictures!