Thanks to the polar vortex, around 56 per cent of Lake Michigan became a stunning blanket of ice shelves in the recent winter, with Chicago, Illinois reaching -30°C during the peak of the icy season.
Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. It’s also the only Great Lake that is situated wholly within the United States.
Its surface area is around 22,404 square miles (58,030 km²) and it’s bordered by the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
Now, warming spring temperatures have caused the frozen surface to shatter.
It has been reduced to striking sheets of ice shards layering one another.
The effect of this has turned the lake into something so captivating that no words can be used to describe its beauty!
Pictures speak louder than words, so take a look at these amazing and beautiful photographs of icy Lake Michigan.
Photographs of the magnificent ice shards can be seen taken near the South Haven Piers.
The extremely cold temperatures caused ice hills to form from waves crashing over existing ice piles.
No doubt, avid photographers and tourists have and will continue to visit the Great Lake to witness and capture this phenomenon.
However, the US Coast Guard has urged people to view it from a distance, as it may be life-threatening if someone were to step on the ice.
The US Coast Guard BMC Grant Heffner told MLive.com that “no ice is safe ice especially this time of year”. He then said, “the ice is certainly deteriorating and breaking up”.
We wish we could witness the striking ice shards!
Credit: Bored Panda, Evening Standard