This rare winter phenomenon was captured in the Fruit Ridge area of Kent County, Michigan when freezing rain coated apples still hanging on the trees. The fruit eventually fell away, leaving behind these wild, hollow ice apples ❄️ Moments like this are uncommon, these photos were taken several years ago during just the right conditions 🧊🍎
I confess that even though I grew up surrounded by orchards that I have not, and it is extremely cool! Here are a couple more shots from Robinette’s Facebook post!
This holiday season I’m encouraging folks to consider Michigan photo calendars from many of the photographers I feature on Michigan in Pictures as the perfect gift to share your love of the Great Lakes State.
We’re going to keep our eyes on the skies today, because in addition to the waning but nearly full Super Hunter’s Moon & Taurid Meteors from yesterday, the NOAA NWS National Space Weather Prediction Center is calling for G3 level aurora activity to continue tonight, which means that Northern Lights are more likely, and they could be seen all the way to the southern state line if conditions are right! They have also launched an experimental Auroral Viewline graphic that shows where you are likely to be able to see northern lights, but to be clear, this is an inexact science AT BEST and hunting for the northern lights is very often unrewarding … unless you think being out under the stars is its own reward.
I have featured dozens of photos from John McCormick aka Michigan Nut Photography since the first pic I blogged in 2011. In all that time & even though he’s taken TONS of northern lights shots over the years, I’ve never shared one of them!! 😲 Here are a pair from John plus a couple of his night shots that I am particularly fond of. See many (many) more on his Facebook and for sure view & purchase his work at michigannutphotography.com!
To have rainbows, we need rain and sun at the same time. What weather pattern is classic for rain and sun at the same time? The current lake-effect rain shower situation is perfect for rainbows. The rain showers are small, maybe only five miles wide. There is a lot of clear sky around the rain showers.
…So we know why we have had and currently have a lot of rainbows in Michigan in the past few days- the spotty lake-effect showers combined with sunshine. But why have there been numerous double rainbows? It has to do with the angle of the sun, combined with the daily weather pattern.
For a double rainbow, the sun has to be fairly low on the horizon, lower than 40 degrees above the horizon. It just so happens the lake-effect showers reach their peak intensity and coverage during the late afternoon heating of the day, when the sun is low on the horizon.
On mornings like this when fall is touching the tips of the leaves, I like to remember photographer & friend Jeff Lamb who passed on fourteen years ago. Here is a collection of photos that he shared from the Leelanau Peninsula back in the day.
You can also tell us what you think some great Michigan fragrances are to inspire tourism. I’m gonna go with Leelanau Cherry Blossom!
Mark took the photo above in 2019 overlooking Lake Michigan near Northport and the one below from St. Wenceslaus Church in the middle of Leelanau County. Head over to Flickr for his latest and for sure visit Leelanau Landscapes to view & purchase his work!
Maple is part of the team at MSU’s Pollinator Performance Center doing critical pollinator research and education. A retired police K-9, she uses her super sense of smell to detect bacteria in bee colonies to help prevent disease from spreading. Currently, beekeepers must manually inspect colonies for disease, but dogs like Maple can identify disease much faster, which could make a big impact on the industry. This project is one of many occurring at the Pollinator Performance Center. Operating since 2021, the center allows MSU to be at the forefront of honeybee and other pollinator research.
While a lot of cherries in the lower half of the Lower Peninsula have already bloomed, cherry blossoms in Michigan’s Cherry Capital of Northwest Lower Michigan are just getting going!
Mark Smith shared the first picture below with me last Thursday from the western side of the Leelanau Peninsula along with a couple recent pics & several more from years past. Cherry blossoms should be great up there for a few weeks at least – follow Leelanau.com for the latest and for sure check out Mark’s Leelanau Landscapes website to view & purchase his work!
Michigan in Pictures 