Chesapeake Bay Frozen

A false-color satellite image of the Chesapeake Bay region shows the bay and its tributaries largely frozen. The image was captured by the Multispectral Scanner System (MSS) on Landsat 1 during the exceptionally cold winter of 1976-1977.

The landscape is shown in false color, in which ice appears in shades of blue, green, and white. On land, snow appears white, vegetation is red, and urban areas take on brown-gray tones.

Persistent westerly winds at the start of February pushed ice toward the eastern shores of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, contributing to fractures visible across the ice's surface.

According to a NASA analysis, ice began forming in the Chesapeake Bay's upper tributaries in late December 1976 and spread to the middle of the upper bay by mid-January 1977.