While the Chicago River is Freezing, Lake Michigan Looks Like A Boiling Cauldron
It looks like a scene straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie as smoke rises from Lake Michigan with the frozen skyline of Chicago as a backdrop.
Chicago earned itself the hashtag #Chiberia when the polar vortex hit the Windy City hard at the end of January, 2019. The Chicago River was freezing over downtown and on the lakeshore, things were just as weird.
"WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling took this video at 8am on 1/30/18 from a balcony in Chicago's North Side Edgewater neighborhood. He says Lake Michigan has taken on the appearance of "a boiling cauldron" as -20 degree air makes contact with the water which sits just above the freezing level."
While Lake Huron and Lake Erie were almost completely frozen over last Winter and you can drive the ice road across Lake Superior, the sheer size of the Great Lakes and volume of water makes it nearly impossible for them to freeze completely. We've seen ice balls, lighthouse beacons swept into Lake Michigan, ships nearly completely frozen over and even a snow tornado but I've never seen anything like this.