How Waves And Cold Create Floating Ice Pancakes

At first glance, it looks like frozen flapjacks scattered across the water, but this isn’t your warm, savory morning treat. It’s a sign of intense cold and churning waves.

Pancake ice is a type of ice that forms in frigid waters when temperatures are cold enough for ice to develop, but waves are still actively churning the surface. Instead of freezing into a smooth sheet, these slushy chunks collide and clump together, gradually forming round, flat disks that resemble pancakes floating on the water’s surface.

As waves push these icy disks into one another, their edges become raised and slightly thicker, creating the distinctive rim that gives pancake ice its name. The constant motion prevents the ice from locking together, so pancake ice is most commonly found in open water areas such as large lakes, seas, or ocean regions during early stages of ice formation.

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Pancake ice is frequently observed in polar regions, but it can also appear on the Great Lakes during intense cold snaps when strong winds and waves combine with subfreezing air. Over time, if winds ease and temperatures remain cold, pancake ice can merge into larger ice floes or solid ice cover.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.