"Ghost Apples" Were A Cool, Amazing Legacy Of Michigan Ice Storm

A "ghost apple" in Michigan. Freezing rain formed around rotten
apples on a tree. The branch shook, the apple fell but left its
icy coating behind. Photo by Andrew Sietsema.

Bouts of ice and freezing rain have been creating havoc off and on from Washington State to New England and beyond this month.

Count me among those who hate freezing rain. You can't drive in it, first of all. That is if you can hack your way through the ice to get inside your car.  

I'm tired of falling on ice, and since I'm getting older, I'm starting to increase my risk of getting hurt in these tumbles. Too much freezing rain brings down trees and power lines.

Yet, like anything else, there's a silver lining to silver thaws, as ice storms are often called. Sun glinting on ice covered trees is gorgeous, for instance. I suppose you can turn your driveway into a nice ice skating rink after freezing rain.  I'm grasping at straws here.

However, one very cool thing happened in Michigan after an ice storm earlier this month. This time of year, people who operate apple orchards begin pruning trees. Late winter is the time to do that.

Another "ghost apple" in Michigan. Photo by Andrew Sietsema via
WOOD-TV

One orchard operator in Kent County, Michigan named Andrew Sietsema went out pruning his apple orchard after an ice storm.

When he pruned, rotten apples still on the trees and encased in ice fell off the trees because the trees were shaking as he lopped off branches.

Most of the time, the ice and the apples fell off together.   But not always.

Apples have a freezing point a little colder than plain water. Temperatures while Sietsema was working were just perfect.  As WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids reported, it was warm enough for the apples to thaw, but cold enough so that the ice from the freezing rain stayed put.

As the trees shook, some of the mushy thawed rotten apples fell off the trees, but the ice that encased the apples stayed behind, attached to the trees.  As you can see by the photos in the post, this created what Sietsema called "ghost apples."  

The ice left behind after the old apples fell formed perfect molds of the apples that were once there. They looked like beautiful glass Christmas ornaments.