Snow: Lake Michigan

                                            photo by Barbara Spring

On the Beach in Grand Haven, MI: February 

Confessions of an Ice Watcher

As I walk out on the icy shoreline on a cold February day, the wind blows through my wool balaclava and my foot slips on glazed patches on the sand.

My leather gloves are not warm enough to keep the wind from freezing my fingers.

My long down coat though is keeping me warm enough to hike along the shoreline.

I pull my Canon (camera that is) out of my pocket. I didn’t want my camera to freeze.   Ice fascinates me.  My distant relative, Roald Amundsen was a polar explorer from the north of Norway who studied ice and figured out how to reach the South Pole with dog sleds.  Maybe that explains my fascination.  Maybe.  Or it may be that the way the wind and waves change the ice patterns every day is the fascination.  From my perch on the dunes, I watch.

In mid-February of 1979, four of the five Great Lakes froze all the way across. This was the first year this had happened in the recorded history of the National Weather Service.  For years the harbor has not had fast ice where the Coast Guard Ice breaker had to try and break through.  Link to my author page on Amazon

I watch. I walk and I watch some more.

Great Lakes Weather

A snow storm on the lakeshore is making driving difficult.  We are having lake effect snow that is blowing in from across Lake Michigan.  Moisture picked up from Lake Michigan increases snow fall.

Pictured is a snow fence on the beach that should prevent snow from blowing across the road.  We have had very little snow this winter and the snow storm on Feb. 24 is letting us know it is still winter   One day last month we had enough snow to ski on so I went out on my cross country skis.  My skis are still in the trunk of my car and all I got was one day of skiing.  Looks like I might be able to ski again.

Read more about Great Lakes weather in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes.  This book has been upadated and is available at Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores.