New York Homes Turned Into Ice Castles

One of the houses at Hoover Beach in Hamburg, New York covered
with ice after large waves from Lake Erie sprayed the houses
with water amid subfreezing temperatures last week. 

Not all areas of western New York were hit by heavy lake effect snow squalls last week

Depending upon where the bands set up, you either measured the snow in feet, or you got out a broom and swept away a dusting of it.

The town of Hamburg, New York, right on the shores of Lake Erie, only managed about six inches of new snow.

Still,  Lake Erie is oddly unfrozen for this time of year.  Which is why those heavy lake effect snows happen. The unfrozen Lake Erie also created another problem besides blizzards.  

For a couple days last week the winds absolutely screamed from the west off the lakes. This generated some awfully big waves on those  lakes. Plus, lake levels are much above normal, so the water is already closer than it usually is to lakeshore homes.

In Hamburg, New York, Lake Erie waves crashing onto the shore created some odd ice castles. At least three homes were encased in thick ice from waves hitting the shore, causing spray to fly through the  air in the gale and onto the houses.

During the storm, occupants had to basically chisel their way out of at least one of the homes.  Ed Mis, the owner of one of the houses, told television station WGRZ that the front of his house is encased in ice one to three feet thick.  One side of a neighbor's house is buried in ice almost to the roof.

It's unclear how badly damaged the houses are. It could be minor, who knows?  Homeowners will need to wait for the ice to melt before figuring that out.  Daytime temperatures in the area are forecast to be in the 40s for much of this week, so maybe at least some of the ice will come off the structures.

Here's a video of what it looked like:

This Guy's Car Is Going To Be Frozen In For Awhile (Or Maybe Not)

Here's why you should not park your car
next to a windy wave-tossed lake on a frigid night. 

An image that has gone totally viral demonstrates why you shouldn't park next to an unfrozen lake on a gusty, frigid evening.

The guy, Justin Yelen, 24,  parked next to Lake Erie while he and a few friends went into a nearby restaurant for drinks.

At the end of the night,  Yelen wisely decided he might have had a little too much to drink so friends gave him a ride home, and he'd retrieve the car the next day.

Good luck with that.

While wise not to drive that night, Yelen was unwise to park next to Lake Erie. Big waves broke over a nearby seawall and water repeatedly splashed onto the car and froze.

He now had an ice cube instead of a car.

It's unclear whether the car is damaged, (I bet if it is, it's not that bad) but he had to figure out how to get in.

Here's what I did when I was confronted with an iced-in vehicle that was admittably not nearly as bad as this situation.

My truck was parked in my driveway in December, 2013, while I was away visiting relatives in South Dakota.

Sort of an ice sculpture left behind after the frozen car
near Lake Erie was towed away.

While I was gone, nearly three inches of sleet and freezing rain accumulated on the truck and froze totally solidly amid temperatures that fell to near zero.

There were no thaws in the forecast, so I waited until just before noon on a sunny day, so at least I had that heat. I was able to get into the truck, and put on the heat and defrost full blast.

I was carefully not to chop or hack at the ice, because that would have damaged the paint, and possibly the windows and windshield.

The heat generated inside loosened the ice, and I was able to take the ice off chunk by chunk. Yes, a tremendous waste of gas, but it worked.

Apparently Yelen went for the big guns. Latest reports are a tow truck came and yanked the car out of the ice. Presumably, it will be towed to a heated garage, where the ice can melt.

Here's a report from television station WKBW about Yelen's situation: