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Devastating Beauty

Early this year, intense weather conditions caused major ice storms followed by significant melting and flooding the next day in South-East Michigan. This image was captured in the evening after a warm day caused all of the ice to melt, but not enough to thaw and allow the water to soak into the ground. With nowhere to go, the water settled in low areas causing large unmoving pools to form. Along with the atmosphere being noticeably affected by the emissions from Mt. Kilauea’s eruptions earlier in the year, the natural disasters formed perfect conditions. The light being scattered from the particles in the air caused the sky to have red tones at sundown even though very few clouds were present. The beautiful gradient of the sky combined with the undisturbed water created a plane mirror which allowed a beautiful virtual image to appear reversed in the water, perfectly doubling the scene. Significant events in the earth’s atmosphere caused natural disasters that lined up and demonstrated elements of physics while working together to create beauty out of devastation.