A stunning photograph of an ice-covered lighthouse on Lake Michigan spread like wildfire on Twitter Tuesday, as users wielded the snowy picture as proof of just how cold much of the nation has become this week.

The polar vortex turned this lighthouse on Lake Michigan into an ice palace. pic.twitter.com/BIo6p5KL88 — Frankie Says Snorlax (@kevinjn) January 7, 2014

It's a gorgeous photograph for sure, and Saint Joseph, Mich., where this shot was taken, is indeed frozen over -- according to Weather.com, temperatures dipped as low as 6 below zero in the city Monday -- but, as BuzzFeed's Mike Hayes has pointed out, the photo isn't all it seems to be.

The picture, taken by pro photographer John McCormick, was actually snapped on Jan. 23, 2013, Hayes explains.

But does that mean that the Saint Joseph Lighthouse was spared the polar vortex's worst? It's actually quite the opposite.

As Mashable notes, the lighthouse, incredibly, seems to be "even icier" this week than it was in McCormick's photograph.

Check out the lighthouse-turned-icicle in this beautiful shot taken by photographer Joshua Nowicki, who posted the picture online Tuesday morning: