This winter season has brought about some of the most visually stunning weather events. Early into 2025, we saw Florida, of all places, transform into a winter wonderland. In fact, they received historic levels of snow! Soon after, Joshua Tree National Park got a gorgeous dusting of snow that is quite rare. Now, it’s Utah’s time to shine with what is called ice shoves. This natural phenomenon takes place in bodies of water.
Videos by InspireMore
In this case, the ice shoves were found at Utah Lake. According to meteorologist Matthew Johnson, this area hasn’t seen ice like this in about five years! As a result, photographers from all over flocked to the lake in order to snag some picture-perfect images. Not sure what ice shoves look like? Check out the video below!
“Pretty cool! Pioneer ancestors would be collecting that by the wagon load, for summer cold boxes,” someone points out in the comments.
Rare Ice Shoves Transform Utah Lake Into an Icy Wonderland
Now that you’ve seen these ice shoves, you may be wondering, “How the heck does that even happen?” Well, when a body of water freezes over, sometimes, the underwater currents continue to flow. If that does happen, and there’s heavy winds, the ice can break similarly to a pane of glass.
“Winds will drive the ice until it hits land, then breaks up and begins to stack,” Matt explains in the caption of his post. “Sometimes this process halts until stronger winds can force the ice higher and further ashore.”
Ice shoves are much more common in places like Bear Lake (found on the Idaho-Utah border) and Lake Michigan. So, while this isn’t the first time this has happened at Lake Utah, it’s certainly rare enough for it to draw attention. And with breathtaking photos like the ones above, it’s easy to understand why!
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!
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