I found this photo from Mark a couple of months ago when I was looking for a photo of Leland Blue for Leelanau.com. Not what I was looking for, but this May 2021 sunset over the Manitou Passage in Lake Michigan is DEFINITELY a find!
Head over to Mark’s Flickr for his latest & for sure view and purchase his work at Leelanau Landscapes!
Ice Cave Sunset by Mark Miller
Today a photo from back in 2014 of the massive ice coverage along the coast of the Leelanau Peninsula showed up in my memories. While we’ve got nothing like that this year, I figured it would still be nice to take a look back.
You can see some more shots in Mark’s Leelanau’s Ice Caves of 2014 gallery on Flickr.
Get more on Leelanau’s ice caves from Leelanau.com & please remember, walking on the ice on Lake Michigan (or any lake) in the winter is never “safe” so please miss me with your complaints.
Here’s a cool shot of the fragmented ice along the North Pier in St. Joseph. Head over to Michelle’s Flickr for more & have a great week everyone!
Winter Gale by Bill VanderMolen
Bill took this shot of a frosty Grand Haven Pier about a week ago. Check out more in his Explored gallery on Flickr & have a great week everyone!
City of Gold IX by Andrew McFarlane
OK here’s one of my pics of the frozen Lake Michigan shore of Leelanau County from back in January of 2009. I chose one with sun because I would like to see the sun! See more in my Frozen Shore gallery on Flickr and STAY WARM!!
Broken ice on Lake Michigan shoreline by Tom Clark
mLive shared yesterday that the coldest air of the season is blanketing Michigan right now, bringing icy temps & dangerously cold wind chills, according to the National Weather Service:
“The coldest air of the winter so far is surging into our area this evening,” according to the NWS meteorologists in the Grand Rapids office. “This is (going to) be the big story for the next 36 hours, how cold it will be. Wind chills will mostly be in the 0-degree to -10 degree range into Tuesday morning. Lows Sunday night will be (between) zero and 10 degrees, and tomorrow we have a secondary surge of even colder air coming in during the afternoon. That will limit our high temperature to the mid-teens.”
…Wind chills are expected to be especially brutal in the U.P. They could drop to 30 degrees below zero near the Wisconsin border tonight and into Monday, the NWS said.
This morning’s Michigan temperature map agrees with a toasty 18 degrees in Detroit dropping to 10 in Mt. Pleasant, 8 by the Mackinac Bridge, -9 in Marquette & all the way down to -15 in Ironwood at the western edge of the Upper Peninsula. Bundle up kids!!
Tom took this back in February of 2018 near Mackinac City. See more in his Michigan Winter gallery on Flickr and view & purchase his work on his website.
While the last weekend’s record winds were (and remain) a major headache for many Michiganders, there’s at least one group that’s all in favor of the current run of wild weather: surfers. Julie took this photo on Sunday & shares:
Yesterday woke up again to gale force winds. We clock 59 MPH here in town and the waves were churning again. I rode out north and there were 11 surfers. Never seen so many here. Temps rose to 59* and have never seen the likes. But the guys and girls out surfing were having a blast. I was talking to some and some drove over 50 miles to get here because of the way the waves were coming in. We still have so many that don’t have electric out and today it’s 26*. Lots of facilities open for them to come too.
I guess this is yet another reminder that every cloud may very well be someone’s silver lining. Head over to Julie’s Flickr for the latest & have a great week.
Head over to Great Lakes Surfing on Michigan in Pictures for lots more!
Muskegon South Pier leaning into the gale by Jerry Herrendeen
This past Sunday (Dec 11, 2021) was a very dark day in American meteorological history as tornados ravaged the middle south, killing at least 80 in Kentucky and visiting devastation on Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee in what has become since 2020 a new seasonal threat.
While the Great Lakes State was spared the worst, mLive shares that Michigan was buffeted by winds topping 60 mph with gusts as high as 72 recorded at the Saugatuck Pier. While there’s no wind reading from the South Breakwater Light, the Muskegon North Breakwater Light clocked a reading of 68 MPH. Waveheads in the audience who want to know just how big the wave in this photo can do a little visual math with the knowledge that the North Breakwater Light is 52′ tall!
Jerry’s The Moods of Lake Michigan gallery makes it clear he has no problem getting out there to get the shot & has a couple more photos from Sunday including this shot of a wave nearly topping the 48′ south pier light.
I’m Feeling A Little On Edge Today by David Hoffman
David took this shot of the incredible edge at the Silver Lake Dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. See more in his Silver Lake Dunes gallery on Flickr!
Fall Color from Sugar Loaf by Andrew McFarlane
Every so often I like to sprinkle in one of my own photos on Michigan in Pictures, and today is one of those days! I took this photo on October, 22, 2018 at the long-shuttered Sugar Loaf Resort on the Leelanau Peninsula. The ski run was called Devil’s Elbow, and you can see Little Traverse Lake, Lake Michigan, and South Manitou Island & Pyramid Point in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (shout out to the Lakeshore for yesterday’s 51st birthday!)
While the color isn’t as spectacular this year as 2018, it’s still pretty nice. Also, fun fact: when I was 11 years old an out of control man ran me off the left side of the Elbow. I slid over 100′ down a very steep hill, broke my arm & had to be pulled out by a rope with a snowmobile by the Ski Patrol. You know I was right back at it as soon as the arm healed!!
If you want to read the long & depressing saga of the ski area, head over to Sugar Loaf Resort on Leelanau.com!
Michigan in Pictures 