McLain State Park Snowshoeing by Nathan Miller
The Keweenaw Road Commission shared last week that they’ve recorded over 300 inches of snow this winter. The 25 feet of snow is about 6 feet more than normal. While that’s definitely a whole lot, it’s 356 inches of snow recorded in the winter of 1978–79.
Nathan took this photo at the beginning of February at McLain State Park near Hancock on the Keweenaw Peninsula. See more in his McLain State Park Snowshoeing – February 2022 gallery on Flickr.
Michigan’s Winter Wonderland by TP Mann
Most of Michigan will see highs in the 50s or 60s today and while there’s (of course) still some snow & subzero temps ahead, the temperature trend is most definitely UP!!
TP took this shot of the Mighty Mackinac Bridge in late February. See more in his Michigan Winter Scenes gallery on Flickr!
Pebble on the beach by Mark Swanson
I don’t know the technical term for the process that creates these pebbles on pedestals on sandy beaches in the winter, but I do know I love it!
Mark took this photo last week on Silver Beach in St. Joseph. See more in his 2022 gallery on Flickr.
Frozen Munising Falls, Michigan by Tom Clark
Tom took this shot last weekend at the 50-foot Munising Falls in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. See more shots in Tom’s UP Trip for Ice 2-4-2022 album on Flickr & for sure zoom in for the crazy detail in this 5k photo!
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!
Plow Extra Grant by Russell Sekeet
The possibly legendary southeast Michigan snowstorm fizzled, so in case you were fired up for it, here’s a “Throwback Thursday” to February 3, 2011. Russell writes Marquette Rail ran a plow extra after the 2011 blizzard that dropped over 2 feet of snow and 50+ MPH winds. Here it is seen busting through the crossing in downtown Grant.
See more in his Michigan gallery on Flickr.
Grand Haven Lighthouse & Pier by Chris Ahern Photography
Chris’s photo of the Grand Haven Lighthouse from last weekend really shows the power of winds off the Great Lakes. You can click the pic to follow him on Facebook, and also see his pics on Instagram and view & purchase prints & calendars on his website.
Winter morning on Agate Beach by Gary McCormick
Here’s a special Science Term Throwback Thursday from January 14th 8 years ago!
Ernest W. Marshall talks about a common winter feature along considerable stretches of Great Lakes shorelines, the Icefoot, a narrow fringe of ice attached to the coast:
Air and water temperatures must be sufficiently low before an icefoot begins to form. The conditions favorable for icefoot formation are broad open shorelines gradually sloping below water level, and facing so that wind-blown spray is carried inland toward the shore to freeze. The character of growth of an icefoot differs during different periods of the winter. During the course of the winter the icefoot may suffer periods of denudation alternating with periods of accretion. The development of an icefoot can be held at one stage by the early freezing of fast ice offshore. An icefoot can be composed of any combination of frozen spray or lake water, snow accumulations, brash, stranded icefloes, and sand which is either thrown up on the icefoot by wave action or is blown out from the exposed beaches.
Observations of the icefoot along the shorelines of Lakes Superior and Erie indicated that the moderately steep portions of the shore were characterized by narrow terraces composed of frozen slush and brash thrown up by storm winds. The outer edge of this icefoot was often cusp-like in form, resulting from the mechanical and melting action of the waves. The inner portions of the cusps acted to concentrate the wave action, forming blowholes which threw spray back on the icefoot.
You can click to read more.
Gary took this photo at one of my favorite places, Agate Beach on Lake Superior in Grand Marais. In the distance is Grand Sable Dunes & the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. See more in Gary’s Grand Marais Michigan gallery including a shot of a staggeringly huge ice mound & view and purchase his work at Footsore Fotography.
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.
WWJ 950 Detroit shares that last winter Nick Schirripa of the Michigan Department of Transportation, “put some feelers out” on Twitter, asking for help naming Michigan’s snow plows. A year later, all 330 of Michigan’s snow plows have new names.
You can check the plows out in realtime on the M-DOT map. The only one I found out & about this morning was Blizzard T Snowplow, listed as “applying material” way up on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Other names include Alice Scooper & Gordie Plowe, movie references like Darth Blader & Han Snowlo, and even “Control, Salt, Delete” for computer nerds.
Bill got this shot along M-72 along the border of Leelanau & Grand Traverse Counties in northwest lower Michigan back in 2018. See more in his Pics from the Car gallery on Flickr.
shoutout to @hksbks on Twitter for the heads up!
Michigan in Pictures 