Photographer captures striking photos of Lake Ontario 'ice house'

Freezing cold temperatures and strong winds off of Lake Ontario has left at least one house in upstate New York completely encased in ice.

Photographer John Kucko was at the scene in Webster, N.Y., to document a beach home along the shoreline that now more closely resembles an igloo after facing five days of harsh winter weather in the area.

He posted images of the remarkable sight Sunday on Facebook, which have quickly been picked up by several U.S. news outlets.

Photos of the lakefront property entombed in ice gathered so much attention over social media that Kucko later released a video to help dispel rumours that he had actually used Photoshop to alter the images.

“Bit overwhelmed by the reaction the ‘Ice House’ is getting. Many people think the images are photoshopped, they’re not,” he wrote on Facebook.

Kucko’s work has received thousands of likes and shares on Facebook, including more than 45,000 views of his video in just 12 hours.

“Thank you for all the kind comments! Never imagined this would go global the way it has. I knew it was a ‘cool’ story, but still (pun intended),” he added.

“Wind chill was so severe, my fully charged iPhone stopped about 6 minutes in,” Kucko revealed. “Lake Ontario can be a monster and indeed it has been since last Wednesday.”

Following up later on Twitter, Kucko explained that the reason this particular home became iced over was because it lacked a retaining wall designed to help protect it from the elements blowing off Lake Ontario.

And it looks like Mother Nature won’t be easing up on the property anytime soon. According to the U.S. National Weather Service, a winter storm is expected to blast western New York this week, with more than 30 centimetres of snow expected to fall in some areas by Wednesday.