What Are Mysterious Ice Pancakes Seen Floating Along CNY Shores

What are the mysterious ice pancakes floating along Central New York shores?

The Sterling Nature Center, a 1428 nature center in Northern Cayuga County, New York has lots of strange ice circles floating on the shores of Lake Ontario.

The ice circles are known as ice pancakes and can appear on bodies of water when temperatures drop well below freezing for several days. And we've seen lots of frigid weather lately, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda.

As the broken pieces of ice move to and fro in the waves, they bump into each other, chipping off many of the pointed edges and causing the floating ice chunks to become more rounded in appearance. When the pieces collide together and water splashes up around the edges and refreezes, it creates thicker ice around the periphery of the ‘pancake,’ which often makes the edges look raised.

Rochester Ice Pancakes

A little further west, Miki Nakajima saw pancake ice too on Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York. "I had no idea what this was and I was so confused," she tweeted.

Ice moss

The beauty of Mother Nature is everywhere in Central New York. The stretch of below zero temperatures has also created what's called Ice Moss growing on the thin ice of the Outlet Stream at the Sterling Nature Center.

Ice Cobbles

When it's a rough day on the lake ice-cobbles form along the shore. Cobblestone ice is a relatively uncommon form of very rough, spring, large grain ice, according to Lake Ice.

The negative temperatures may be numbing but at least it creates beautiful and usual phenomenons you can see during the winter months. The biggest may be the Ice Castles that have come to New York for the first time. See them before they melt in Lake George.