It looks like a prank. Or maybe an alien invasion. Imagine standing on the Sleeping Bear Dunes shoreline in mid-January, the wind whipping off the water at forty miles per hour, and seeing thousands of perfect, basketball-sized spheres of ice bobbing in the surf. They aren't jagged. They aren't slushy messes. They are smooth, heavy, and eerily uniform.
People call them ice balls Lake Michigan, and every few winters, they go viral. People see the photos and assume they’re fake. "No way nature makes a perfect circle," the skeptics say. But nature is actually a pretty decent engineer when the physics are just right. Honestly, it’s one of the rarest spectacles in the Great Lakes region, requiring a specific "Goldilocks" set of weather conditions that usually only last for a few hours or days.
If you’ve ever tried to make a snowball with dry, powdery snow, you know it’s impossible. Now imagine the lake trying to do that with slush and freezing water. It’s a chaotic process. It’s loud. And when it happens, the shoreline looks like it’s been paved with giant marbles.
The Weird Physics of How These Spheres Form
You need three things for this to work: supercooled water, a "seed" of some kind, and constant, rhythmic motion.
Water in Lake Michigan doesn't always freeze into a solid sheet immediately. When the air temperature drops well below freezing but the wind is kicking up waves, the water becomes "supercooled." It wants to be ice, but it’s moving too much to settle down. Little chunks of slush—technically called "frazil ice"—start to accumulate.
Basically, a small piece of frozen slush or a tiny pebble acts as the nucleus. As the waves tumble this slushy core over and over, it picks up more supercooled water. This water freezes instantly to the surface of the ball. It’s exactly like a candle being dipped in wax, layer after layer. The constant rolling action of the waves against the shallow sandy bottom or against other ice chunks grinds off any sharp edges.
The result? A sphere. Some are the size of a baseball; others can weigh over 50 pounds and reach the size of a boulder.
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Tom Ulrich, the deputy superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, has talked about this phenomenon many times when the balls appear near Glen Haven. He notes that while they look solid, they are often a mix of ice and compacted slush, though they can freeze rock-solid if the temperature stays low enough. It isn't just a Michigan thing—it happens in the Arctic and occasionally on the shores of Lake Superior—but the specific depth and wave frequency of Lake Michigan seems to produce the most "photogenic" batches.
Why You Can't Just Go See Them Anytime
Timing is everything. You can't just drive up to Traverse City or Leland in February and expect to see them.
Most winters, the lake just freezes into "pancake ice"—those flat, lily-pad shaped discs with raised edges. Pancake ice happens when the water is a bit calmer. For ice balls Lake Michigan to form, the water needs to be turbulent enough to keep the spheres rolling but not so violent that it smashes them into pieces.
Then there’s the wind.
If the wind is blowing offshore, the balls get pushed out into the deep water where they eventually melt or break apart. You need a steady onshore wind to herd them toward the beach. Once they hit the shallow water, they congregate in massive "rafts." You might see five thousand of them jammed into a single cove. Then, if the temperature drops further, they can actually freeze together into a bizarre, bumpy shelf that extends into the lake.
Common Misconceptions About the "Ice Orbs"
- They are hollow. They aren't. They are dense, heavy, and can be incredibly difficult to move. If you try to pick up a large one, be careful with your back.
- They are made of snow. While snow can contribute to the slush, these are primarily formed from lake water.
- They happen every year. Nope. Some years the lake freezes too fast. Other years, it stays too warm. We might go three or four years without a significant "ball event."
The 2013 and 2020 Events
The most famous instances occurred in 2013 and again in early 2020. In 2013, the photos taken near Glen Arbor reached international news. People were mesmerized by the scale of it. It looked like a giant had emptied a bag of white boulders onto the sand.
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During the January 2020 event, the balls appeared near Holland and South Haven. This was interesting because the water temperatures were slightly higher than usual for that time of year, but a sudden polar vortex surge created the perfect rapid-freeze conditions. It shows that you don't necessarily need a "deep freeze" winter; you just need a very specific temperature "snap" combined with the right wind fetch.
How to Safely Experience the Phenomenon
If you hear reports that the ice balls are forming, you have to move fast. A shift in wind direction can pull them back out to sea or bury them under a fresh layer of snow within hours.
Watch the "Weather" of the Lake
Check the nearshore marine forecasts for Lake Michigan. You’re looking for air temperatures between 10°F and 25°F and onshore winds (winds blowing toward the land) around 15 to 25 knots.
Safety First
Walking on the "ice shelf" in Lake Michigan is incredibly dangerous. The balls create an uneven surface that is often slicker than it looks. Underneath those balls, there might be "ice caves" or pockets of open water. If you fall through, the current can pull you under the ice. Always stay on the sandy part of the beach and use a zoom lens for your photos.
Where to Look
The most frequent sightings happen at:
- Sleeping Bear Dunes (Glen Haven/Good Harbor)
- Point Betsie Lighthouse
- South Haven Pier
- Leland (Van't Hof Park)
The Environmental Impact
Is this a sign of climate change? It’s complicated.
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Researchers at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) track ice cover extensively. While the Great Lakes are seeing a general trend toward less total ice cover over decades, the volatility of the weather is increasing. We get more "flash freezes" and more intense wind storms. These are the exact ingredients for ice balls.
So, while we might see less total ice on the lake, we might actually see these specific phenomena more often because the lake stays open (unfrozen) longer, allowing the wind to churn up the water well into January and February. When the lake is fully frozen over, the ball-making factory shuts down.
Practical Steps for Your Trip
If you're planning to hunt for ice balls Lake Michigan, follow these steps to make sure you actually see them and stay safe.
- Monitor Local Webcams: Use the "Leland Harbor" or "South Haven" live cams. If you see white chunks bobbing in the surf, get in the car.
- Pack Cleats: Buy a pair of Yaktrax or similar ice cleats for your boots. The spray from the lake turns the beach rocks into skating rinks.
- Go Early: The "golden hour" just after sunrise provides the best lighting for these white spheres, making the shadows pop so they look three-dimensional in photos.
- Check Social Media Tags: Search Instagram or Twitter for "Lake Michigan Ice" or "Sleeping Bear Dunes" and filter by "Latest." This is the most reliable way to get real-time reports from locals.
Once the wind shifts or the temperature rises above 32°F, the balls lose their shape and turn back into generic slush. It is a fleeting, ephemeral piece of Great Lakes magic. It's nature showing off its ability to create order out of the chaos of a freezing storm.
The best way to track this is to keep an eye on the National Weather Service "Nearshore Marine Forecast" for Northern Lake Michigan. Look for "Heavy Freezing Spray" warnings combined with onshore winds. That is the ultimate signal that the lake is currently "manufacturing" ice balls. When those conditions hit, head to the shoreline near Glen Haven or Leland immediately, as these formations rarely last more than 48 hours before being crushed by shifting ice or buried by the next snowstorm.