The frozen houses that looked like a scene from a fairytale or nightmare

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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Hamburg, New York, is less than 20 minutes from Buffalo. The town runs along Lake Erie, and for some local beach-front dwellers, the lake ran along and froze to their homes.

Ice completely encased their homes.

Wind gusts of 75 km/h blew waves ashore and freezing temperatures quickly turned the water into ice. This happened again and again until some houses were covered in almost a metre of ice.

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Residents in these homes need to use chisels to enter and exit their houses. The ice was so thick that it almost completely blocked any natural light from coming through.

These houses attracted visitors, which caused safety concerns. The area was not only very slippery, but the roads leading to the houses were not designed for the amount of traffic that these homes garnered.

People who lived in these ice-covered houses also needed to consider carbon monoxide levels because their ventilation was obstructed. They also needed to consider the extra weight of the ice and what could happen when it started to melt.

Home inspectors did what was necessary to ensure the safety of the residents.

Everyone was safe and all that is left are these photos that deeply unbelievable photos (points for resisting any “Erie” puns?).

To hear more about these ice homes, listen to today’s episode of “This Day In Weather History.”

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Thumbnail courtesy of Hank Kleinfelder