Donegal Weather Channel

View Original

Frozen homes near Lake Erie, New York are an eerie sight

See this social icon list in the original post

Frozen homes near Lake Erie are an eerie sight - photo by John Kucko

Winter's chill recently turned Lake Erie into "Lake Eerie," as frigid temperatures transformed a trio of lakeside houses in Hamburg, New York, into unsettling ice sculptures. The frigid cold and wind sealed the homes inside thick layers of solid ice, topped with still more frozen layers of wavy icicle "hair."

Beginning on Feb. 27 and continuing for 48 hours, winds gusted over Lake Erie at speeds up to 60 mph (97 km/h), driving lake water inland to the Hoover Beach neighborhood, AccuWeather reported. 

There, freezing temperatures solidified the water wherever it was carried by the wind, forming an icy coating on several homes — and the ice just kept building up, according to The Weather Channel.

See this content in the original post

Around this time of year, ice cover is usually abundant on Lake Erie's surface. That typically prevents the shoreline from being soaked with cold water during powerful storms; however, Lake Erie's eastern end is nearly ice-free this year, leaving the shore vulnerable to spray from storm-whipped waves, The Weather Channel reported.

Ice blanketing the homes was estimated to be around 3 feet (1 meter) thick and was so solid that it even blocked daylight coming through the windows, Hoover Beach resident Ed Mis told CNN.

See this content in the original post

"It’s dark on the inside of my house," Mis said. "It looks fake, it looks unreal." The neighborhood had experienced some ice coatings like this before, but this event was the most extreme in nearly a decade, Mis told CNN.

"Welcome to Narnia," wrote John Kucko, a TV anchor in Rochester, New York. On Feb. 29, Kucko tweeted a photo showing the frozen houses.

See this content in the original post

Kucko later tweeted another photo revealing why the three houses froze while their nearest neighbors didn't. The frozen homes lacked a buffer zone of boulders on the beach in front of them; the big piles of rock broke up the waves' momentum and reduced the amount of water spray from high winds to those other homes, Kucko said.

See this content in the original post

Click on the tabs below to view the new forecasts available under the forecast section.

See this content in the original post

2019 CALENDAR NOW ON SALE

See this product in the original post

CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE

See this content in the original post

Follow Donegal Weather Channel on other social media platforms by clicking the icons below



See this content in the original post

See this content in the original post