Daily Archives: March 30, 2026

If you were lucky enough to be walking along Lake Mendota shoreline at Shorewood Hills and Frautschi Point on March 16, 2026, you might have seen ice balls, or ice eggs, floating in the water.  This was a rare occurrence of naturally formed balls of ice that form in cold water.

While they look a little like hail, the formation of ice balls is very different. The freezing temperatures form sheets of ice on the water surface. The wind and the resulting wave action causes the ice sheets to break up and form small pieces of ice and slush. The gentle tossing of the water by a breeze causes the pieces of ice to collide and stick together. Single balls of ice begin to form in the ebb and flow of water and grow as layers of water freeze over the surface of the ice balls. Eventually the wind and water currents move the ice balls to the shoreline where they collect. Continue reading →