It is an amazing time when a frozen lake forms a network of thousands upon thousands of icy balls.
Filmed at Lake Manitoba in Canada on November 20th, footage shows that the lake has frozen into large numbers of pebble-shaped balls.
A rare pattern of the lake creates the illusion that it is a huge icy beach stretching as far as the eyes can see.
Peter Hofbauer (local entrepreneur) noticed it and started a company that offers canoeing on the east side of the lake.
This was taken by Mr Hofbauer and captioned: “20th November Lake Manitoba.” Are you familiar with this lake freezing like that?
He replied to all comments by saying that the ice had become very dense and hard, which made the surface uneven.
Hofbauer claimed that the lake had ice about 6 inches thick.
This footage was taken by Mr Hofbauer and shows an area adjacent to limestone cliffs.
The rare pattern is revealed as he zooms in.
Peter Hofbauer is a Canadian canoe company owner. He zooms in to see the patterns they created.
The pattern is visible on a small section of the ice, just behind the orange sky and the large spheres.
As Mr Hofbauer walks on, the ice appears to continue for miles along with the limestone cliffs.
Mr Hofbauer told CBC: ‘The water created these balls of ice and they just accumulated against the shore, and it seemed to just spread out over the lake as far as I could see,’ he said.
Later, he stated that he’d never seen ice so shaped before.
Ice formation is an uncommon phenomenon. It occurs when small amounts of ice crystals and frazil are formed in turbulent waters that are sub-zero.
While Mr Hofbauer is still walking, it appears that the ice patterns continue on for miles.
Global News: Dr Vincent McFarlane (Stac Hydrotechnical Specialist) spoke out to say that the river ice specialist, Stantac expert in river ice, has been building up and rising to the surface.
Over the past weekend strong winds and waves caused water to swell into slippery orbs, which then frozen.
These rare slush balls must form by the water being open only for a short time.
The fragile nature of slush balls means that they will break down quickly when picked up. It is similar to what happens if you take a snowball and place it in water according to Jeff Kavanaugh.
Dr McFarlane said: ‘The wave action took these frazil ice accumulations and rolled them up into ball shapes, instead of letting them form … the pans or the pancakes that we would see on the river.
“It is something that I have heard about a few times. This is something that I’ve seen in the Great Lakes on occasion.
“I feel like we saw something really special in this situation with strong winds and large waves.
Over the weekend strong winds and waves in this area likely caused the water to become slushy, then it froze due to the freezing of the waters.
Herr Hofbauer was curious about the underside, so he went out Monday night to cut a section of it to check the bottom. It was much smoother.
He soon realized that they were snowballs after he had taken them.
Mr Kavanaugh said: ‘That’s why they call it slush balls.
‘They’re very much like if you took a snowball — a weakly compacted snowball … and put it in water. They are very delicate.
The stick-like structures were approximately eight centimetres in length and were found by Mr Hofbauer along the thin ice near the shore.
According to Kavanaugh the formations can be created when there is less wave impact.
According to him, in calm circumstances water molecules can form into crystals. These crystals grow like needles.
Sometimes, it can be found on pavements where it has rained and when it is cold afterwards.
They are formed by the chilly water, which has less wave effect and is weaker when it’s picked up.