"Ice pancakes" have formed in Lake Michigan in Grand Haven and Ferrysburg. WZZM 13 sent Air13 out to film the captivating winter wonder.
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, these pancake shapes form when the lake freezes, but waters are rough. The signature feature of the ice pancakes are their raised edges that are caused by the ice chunks bumping into each other.
According to weather.com, ice pancakes can begin as a thin ice layer (known as grease ice) or slush on the water surface, which accumulates into quasi-circular disks. The "lily pad," or raised-edge appearance of pancake ice, can form when each disk bumps up against one another, or when slush splashes onto and then freezes on the slab's edge.
Eventually, these separate pieces of ice will begin to fuse into one ice sheet. But for now, we can admire how mesmerizing these floating ice pancakes are.
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