Frozen Valentines Heart, photo by LadyDragonflyCC – Happy Valentines.
A few weeks ago we featured one of LadyDragonflyCC’s photos on our Make it a Michigan Valentine’s Day. Is it OK to go back for seconds, especially as Michigan’s frozen heart melts in a mid February thaw?
Give us what you’re loving this Valentine’s Day in the comments!
Check this out big as love and in her Frozen Possibilities slideshow.
Just After Sunrise (2), photo by siskokid.
Jim writes that nothing beats the early morning light as it falls on the ice and snow of frozen Lake Superior. He took three shots (#1 and #3) from the beach at Little Girl’s Point in the far western end of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on a very cold Sunday morning in January. The day before this shot was taken some ice fishermen found out the hard way how capricious Superior’s ice can be. Sam Cook’s story begins:
For an hour and a half, Skip Wick had been trying to stay upright on a chunk of ice in Lake Superior’s 8-foot swells.
The 80-year-old ice angler, stranded on the lake Saturday after big waves undermined the ice in Saxon Harbor east of Ashland, knew his options were limited.
“As I was standing there, the ice kept breaking up,” said Wick, a retired shop teacher from Hurley, Wis. “There was a big roar, like a jet going over, and here would come a wave.”
The roar was the sound of the waves, later estimated by Ashland firefighters at 8 to 12 feet, lifting and grinding chunks of ice as far as Wick could see. The chunk he was on was about as long and wide as a car, he said.
If you read on, you will learn how they were eventually rescued with an air boat, or wind sled, called an Ice Angel. Many who challenge Superior or any of the Great Lakes in wintertime are less luck.
Check this out background big and in Jim’s massive Lake Superior slideshow.
While this might seem like the ice goes on forever, as you can see from the satellite view, it barely dents the lake! More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
Boyne Falls MI RARE 1950s Ice Sculpture at Boyne Mountain Snow and Ice Sculptures were a popular attraction at Ski Resorts in the 50s and 60s Bob Miles Photo Card S24328 Unsent, photo by UpNorth Memories – Donald (Don) Harrison.
In In Snowpocalypse Now Redux: When the weatherati cry wolf, what do we believe next time? Jeff Wattrick says that while we don’t want forecasts as understated as the “Snow, potentially heavy at times” that preceded the monstrous blizzard of ’78:
At some point we may actually get one of death storms with historic barometric pressure readings and the like. The forecasters may even predict it – that’ll happen when every dusting of wintery precipitation is a potential holofrost – but no one will care.
In essence, too much coverage can be as bad as not enough.
It’s like waking up every morning and predicting your own death. Eventually, you’ll be right. So what?
The wall-to-wall coverage – complete with live blogs, non-stop primetime school closure scrolls, and reports about panicked supermarket shoppers – doesn’t inform. It is absurdist theater that ignites in some a delusion that middle class life in 21st century Michigan can be a harrowing fight for survival.
…from such terrifying hazards as:
Thundersnow Is Go!: From beyond any known galaxy and bringing with it the laws and ideals of its home planet of Fontara…Thundersnow! As best as anyone can tell, it’s like a regular thunderstorm but with snow instead of rain because it’s winter. Like Murrow covering the London Blitz, the WXYZ liveblog bravely reported thundersnow rumbled through Southfield at 3:15 this morning.
As a resident and business owner in a resort destination I have railed about sensationalism in weather forecasts in the past. Definitely click through for the choice Simpson’s clip Jeff found!
Check this out bigger than a blizzard and in Don’s slideshow.
providence road, photo by heinrick05.
Much of the Mitten is bracing for a major winter storm that is predicted to drop well over a foot of snow from Grand Rapids to Detroit tonight and tomorrow. Meteorologist Bill Steffen has some great stuff on the storm and on Michigan weather in general. He’s named the storm the Groundhog Day Dump and writes that Punxsutawney Phil:
…has looked at the models and he’s definitely forecasting six more weeks of winter, maybe seven…and that this coming summer will be a couple degrees cooler than last summer.
The heaviest snow Tuesday night into early Weds. with snowfall rates of over an inch an hour. The heaviest snow looks to be across the southern half of Lower Michigan, with lighter amount as you go north toward Traverse City. The model data is in pretty good agreement. The models are in the 10-16″ range, a couple up to 18″, but I didn’t go quite that high. Winds will blow he snow into 3-4 foot drifts. All the models think this is going to be a very significant snowstorm and if they are right, some places will be approaching or exceeding all-time February record 12 or 24-hour snowfalls. And…if the models are right, there won’t be many schools open Weds. from Kent Co. to the south at least and maybe all the way to Cadillac. The GFS gives us a steady 25 mph wind with gusts to 35 (850 mb wind to 78 mph!). That’s at least “near blizzard” conditions for Tuesday night and Weds. AM.
Keep in mind that’s snowFALL not snow cover. The numbers have been pretty consistent. CAUTION: Numbers from these models are often too high and sometimes WAY too high. The heaviest snow ever in G.R. in a single day was 16.1″ during the blizzard of ’78. The 24-hour snowfall record for G.R. in any February is 11.4″ ON 2/3/2007. With records going back to the late 1800s, Grand Rapids has NEVER had a foot of snow in 24-hours during the month of February. This storm will be moving, not backing up and stopping like the blizzard of ’78. So, feel free to get excited, but don’t go overboard.
So panic … but keep it in perspective. More blizzards on Michigan in Pictures and also see Great Blizzard of 1978 on Absolute Michigan.
Check this photo out bigger and in Heinrick’s Michigan slideshow.
Ice Caves_3986, photo by Mike Hainstock.
Mike took a trip to the Eben Ice Caves (click that link for the what & where) with the Superiorland Photography Club. He took the opportunity to try out his Vivitar 285 flashes, wireless triggers and some colored gels, and fellow Absolute Michigan group member Kim Nixon was there as well.
See this bigger in Mike’s Eben Ice Caves slideshow and also check out the most interesting Eben Ice Cave shots on Flickr!
Lake Michigan on Ice, photo by Happyhiker4.
Mark writes that there was a somewhat rare occurrence on the Northwestern shore of Michigan’s lower peninsula – the sun actually came out!
Check it out bigger in his slideshow and have a wonderful winter weekend!
PS: Speaking of ice, there’s the Zehnders Snowfest 2011 this weekend in Frankenmuth. It’s celebrating its 20th anniversary as one of the nation’s top snow sculpting events.
PPS: Speaking of ice sculpting, apparently the Virgin Mary has made an appearance in Michigan, on ice.
PPPS: Much more Michigan ice on Michigan in Pictures!
Onward & Upward (Series), photo by LadyDragonflyCC – Frozen Series Loaded.
Valentine’s Day is not far off, so we thought it would be a good idea to start folks thinking about how to Make it a Michigan Valentine’s Day! That link goes to our Facebook, but if that’s not your thing, you can comment below. Get some great ideas for gifts & getaways in Celebrate Valentine’s Day the Michigan Way on Absolute Michigan.
With this photo I was also hoping to share the thought that Valentine’s Day doesn’t need to be extravagant or involved … simple and from the heart works really well a lot of the time.
See it background big and see more in LadyDragonflyCC’s Frozen Possibilities slideshow.
ice ice baby, photo courtesy NOAA CoastWatch – Great Lakes Region
Michigan is under the big chill right now, ranging from -4.2 in Escanaba to a balmy 22.8 in Holland.
Check this out big as Michigan and click for some more great satellite photos from this series.
More ice & snow on Michigan in Pictures, including some nifty Michigan winter wallpaper.
Point Betsie Lighthouse, photo by lomeranger.
The Point Betsie Light Station entry at Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light says that although the lighthouse on the southern tip of South Manitou Island was in 1840, it wasn’t until 1853 that the decision was made to construct a lighthouse to mark the passage’s eastern side and to let ships know when to turn south.
The plan for the Point Betsey Light called for a cylindrical single-walled tower constructed of Cream City brick, standing 37 feet in height from the foundation to the top of the ventilator ball. Five concentric brick rings encircling the tower beneath the lantern, each successively larger in diameter than the lower ring, formed a support for the gallery on which an decagonal cast iron lantern was installed. The lantern was outfitted with a white Fourth Order Fresnel lens equipped with bulls eyes, which was rotated around the lamp by a clockwork drive at a precisely monitored speed to impart the station’s characteristic fixed white light with a flash every 90 seconds. By virtue of the tower’s location on the dune, the lens was located at a focal plane of 52 feet above lake level with a range of visibility of ten miles. The small two story dwelling, also of Cream City brick was located on an excavated cellar immediately inshore of the tower, to which it was connected by a short covered passageway. This passageway was outfitted with a cast iron door at the tower end in order to stop the spread of any possible fire between the two structures.
The exact date on which the Point Betsey Light was exhibited has been lost to history. While Lighthouse Board annual reports and Light Lists report the station as being completed in 1858, it was not until February 1, 1859 that David Flury, the first keeper to be assigned to the station, appears in District payroll. Thus, it may well be that while construction was completed in 1858, the Light was not activated until the opening of the 1859 navigation season.
Read on to learn much more about this gorgeous lighthouse including the steps they had to take to unsure that the pounding surf you see here didn’t destroy the light.
Check it out bigger in Jason’s Ice slideshow. And don’t miss this shot Jason took of Point Betsie’s neighbor, the Frankfort Pier Light being BLASTED by the big storm of October 2010!
Friends of Point Betsie note that the light is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the US. See the evidence in the Point Betsie slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool!
Gabbro Falls, photo by siskokid.
The Go Waterfalling page on Gabbro Falls (located in the western UP near Blackjack Mountain) begins:
Gabbro Falls is on the Black River and is as impressive, if not more impressive, than its more celebrated neighbors downstream along the Black River Scenic Byway. This is a largely wild waterfall with no fences or barriers of any kind. It consists of three separate drops. When the water is high there is a fourth drop that is the height of the other three combined. The main drop falls into a narrow crevice between two large rock formations.
Gabbro Falls is relatively easy to find but there is some confusing information out there. The waterfall is also known as Baker’s Falls, and it is often mistakenly called Garbo Falls (gabbro is a type of rock). There is also a Neepikon Falls upstream, but it is just an unremarkable rapid. (read on for detailed directions)
Jim says that he grew up in this area, but only found out this waterfall existed last week! Check it out background big and in his Da UP slideshow.
Many more Michigan waterfalls on Michigan in Pictures!
Michigan in Pictures 
