Today's Image

Wind sculpted this frozen sand in Michigan

Posted by

and

February 16, 2015

View larger. | Photo by Joshua Nowicki. — View larger. | Photo by Joshua Nowicki Photography.

It was fiercely cold in the U.S. state of Michigan this past weekend, when Joshua Nowicki posted this cool photo at EarthSky Facebook. He said these interesting formations were created by the wind eroding the frozen sand at Silver Beach County Park in Saint Joseph, Michigan on February 14, 2015. The largest one, he wrote, was about 12 inches (30 cm) tall.

Thank you, Joshua!

How cold was it in Michigan? Dangerously cold. Mlive.com/weather wrote that – at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, February 15, 2015 – every reporting site except Port Hope and Munising was below zero Fahrenheit. Here’s a listing of the Sunday morning readings they collected from around the state of Michigan:

Gaylord -21°
Houghton Lake -18°
Alpena -15°
Traverse City -13°
Saginaw -13°
Bay City -13°
Midland -13°
Lansing -12°
Flint -11°
Jackson -11°
Ann Arbor -10°
Detroit -9°
Grand Rapids -8°
Kalamazoo -6°
Muskegon -5°
Marquette -4°

Phew! That’s cold.

Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!

Bottom line: It was cold in the upper U.S this weekend, when Joshua Nowicki noticed and captured these cool frozen sand formations.

Posted

February 16, 2015

in

Today's Image

Deborah Byrd

View Articles

About the Author:

Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.