Few natural phenomena are more impressive than watching a calving glacier, or a massive ice sheet breaking in half. The sheer enormity of ice masses can be tough to grapple with sometimes, especially from ground-level where you might not have an accurate perspective of size or scale. Luckily, when this ice sheet covering Lake Michigan broke apart from the Chicago shoreline this week, there was an aerial video camera to capture just how epic the event actually was.
Photo: wxkassell/WGN-TV/Twitter
Video Shows Immense Ice Sheet Breaking From Lake Michigan’s Shoreline
The footage was caught on tape by WGN-TV’s weather live cam located on top of the John Hancock Center, and was shared as a timelapse on Twitter by meteorologist John Kassell.
In a caption to the video, Kassell wrote, “Incredible timelapse of a giant section of ice covering Lake Michigan around the Chicago shoreline breaking off and drifting away. This video timelapse was captured by the WGN Hancock camera.”
Incredible timelapse of a giant section of ice covering Lake Michigan around the Chicago shoreline breaking off and drifting away. This video timelapse was captured by the WGN Hancock camera. H/T Tom @Skilling pic.twitter.com/9evTRpiLtn
— John Kassell (@wxkassell) February 23, 2021
Earlier this month, parts of Lake Michigan froze over during an extended cold front that saw nine consecutive days of snowfall, breaking a 78-year-old record, Newsweek reported. Being able to stand on frozen Lake Michigan is rare, and people have been taking advantage of it. Just make sure you stay off the ice when the temperature increases, or you may just be caught on the wrong side of a breaking ice sheet. 