The Christmas blizzard, now a month ago, wreaked havoc on the city of Buffalo in more ways than one. Snow, cold and wind all were talked about in great detail throughout the coverage of the storm.
One piece of the blizzard that wasn’t covered as much was the destruction ice caused throughout the storm. Now referred to as ice cars and houses, these structures became almost unrecognizable because of the amount of ice that coated them.
A family member of mine owned a lakefront cottage in Wainfleet, Ontario. Time after time, storms came off Lake Erie and damage the home. The beach nearly eroded away.
The final straw for my family was a windstorm in 2020 that all but flattened the home, and eventually led them to sell. On that same street two years later, ice covered homes during the blizzard of 2022.
Although it is too soon to tell if the ice damaged the integrity of the homes, it’s safe to assume that the weight of the ice wasn’t good. Here are some pictures.
If frozen homes sound somewhat familiar, think back to 2016. That is when the infamous "ice car" sat in the parking lot of Hoak’s (a neighborhood bar and restaurant) in Hamburg, New York, for almost a week.
Just like in Wainfleet, a thick layer of ice buried a car that took tools and time to thaw out.
The pictures are incredibly interesting. Some would even say beautiful. It’s not every day that we see inches’ worth of ice on homes and cars. Why is that, and how does this happen?
The temperature has to be well below freezing. On top of it being cold, winds have to be strong. With both examples talked about above, winds were over 50 mph.
Winds stayed strong for multiple hours. The wind direction plays a part, too. Depending on the direction the wind is blowing, water levels can be affected. Lake Erie sometimes experiences a phenomenon called a seiche.
With strong winds blowing lake water onto homes, streets and cars, they look like they came out of the movie "Frozen."
While this isn’t a common occurrence in Western New York, it is a possibility at least once every winter. Hopefully you now know the signs to look for in the event you’re near Lake Erie during another powerful winter storm.
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