Video: Mille Lacs Lake ice shove reaches 30 feet tall, smashes cabin wall
Image courtesy of Johnson's Portside
Winds blasting across Mille Lacs Lake at 40 mph this week resulted in huge piles of ice swallowing shorelines and smashing into at least one cabin.
The mountains of ice were up to 30 feet tall, according to Steve Johnson, owner of Johnson's Portside, who has taken numerous videos of the phenomenon and posted them to his Facebook page.
"Only the 1 cabin so far has a caved in wall," Johnson said, adding that "this is common in the spring but not this bad – 40 mph winds will do that."
The technical term is an ice shove, which the National Weather Service defines as: "In hydrologic terms, on-shore ice push caused by wind, and currents, changes in temperature, etcetera."
Here's video of the ice piling up on the lake before reaching the shore.
Johnson has since produced a hilarious video in which he jokes that because so many people want to drive to Mille Lacs Lake to see the phenomenon, he'll save them the trouble and send them a bag of "commemorative ice" for $19.95.
He's also got a "deluxe" bucket of Mille Lacs ice (with a sticker) for $49.95. To make sure the ice doesn't melt during the shipping process, he'll throw in a bag of ice to keep it cold.
