Wild Photos From the Arctic Freeze That Hit North America

This looks like a whole lot of “no thank you.” Seriously, this snow day got so bad that the snow fully covered this front door entrance, and people were completely shut in. By the looks of it, it’s pretty scary. Where do you even start with shoveling this snow out of the way? Maybe if they start with a tunnel, then they can at least turn their home into an igloo for the time being.

These images are of the train tracks in Chicago on fire, but before you become horrified, this is actually done intentionally. Rather than have automated electrical heating systems on the trains, they must manually heat them with fire. Why do they do this? Since the temperatures are below freezing, they must heat the train tracks to prevent them from freezing over and to ensure the trains can still drive properly. 

A loving husband posted this photo of his wife on social media, and it went viral. She’s a registered nurse and was scheduled for another day at work, despite the freezing weather. She got completely ready as if she were about to trek on Mount Everest. Only it was actually just to walk to work through the insane blizzard hitting their town. Can we talk about her absolute dedication to her profession?

Seattle, Washington, is a place known for its grey days and cold, rainy weather. But this year, temperatures reached a groundbreaking low, and ice was everywhere. This lady even had a grand idea to spend her time ice skating on her own street rather than stay inside her home all day. That sure is a way to take advantage of the scenario and turn something most people consider bad into fun!

This lady woke up and saw this outside her front porch and just had to snap a picture. It looks like a winter wonderland-themed movie set or something out of a dream. But it’s, in fact, completely real and a pretty powerful photo. With this heavy snow, extreme winds, and extremely cold temperatures, it could be the worst blizzard ever to hit Buffalo, New York. She shared she’s just grateful she lives with her fiancee, mom, and dad. 

The weather is so cold that this person couldn’t get out of their own home. In Canada, apparently, they reported the temperature got down to -41! This seems unbearable and impossible, but Canada is a cold, cold place. It was so freezing that their garage door was completely frozen shut. Being trapped in your home sounds like a nightmare, but this is the reality right now for many North Americans.

This photo will give you a whole new perspective on what winter really is for some people worldwide. A family in Oklahoma shared this photo after turning on their water and watching it immediately freeze! Even the droplets dripping off the faucet quickly turned into icicles all over the sink. It looks like some sort of science experiment, but it’s really just absolutely freezing! You can’t even take a shower in these circumstances.

Feast your eyes on a photo that will make you say, ‘Woah.’ This image captures Christmas Day 2022 in Buffalo, New York. It’s the first day after the worst blizzard that’s ever hit this part of the country in years. Whoever wished for a white Christmas probably wasn’t expecting this. The entire road is covered in snow; it looks like it’s a mountain and not a highway. Getting caught in a blizzard like this is no joke. 

This winter has clearly been a chaotic one, setting record-freezing temperatures. In this case, 138 bats were found hardly alive after falling from the Waugh Drive Bridge, traditionally a place where locals gather to watch bats emerge and fly around at night. However, they were in very bad shape due to the harsh freezing conditions. Luckily, the Houston Humane Society rescued all 138 bats and nursed them all back to health.

Imagine waking up, walking to your living room, and, much to your surprise, your entire living room is covered in a layer of snow. Well, that happened to this lady; of course, she had to take a picture for proof. Apparently, the winds were so strong that her locked door blew open. Before you knew it, all the snow from outside was blowing in, and now she’s left shoveling her carpet.

Not only is this chilling weather painful for humans to endure but also for animals. So this guy decided to come up with a tactic to help his regular hummingbird visitors in his backyard. Next to the water and food he has set up for the birds, he added a heat lamp. Now, these birds will have access to water that’s not entirely frozen and be able to warm up a bit.

This arctic freeze is hitting hard and affecting people in ways you wouldn’t even think of. This guy went for a morning stroll, and his face was covered in snow within minutes! It can potentially be super dangerous because of how slippery and icy the floor gets during this weather. But this guy has a big smile on his face, so he must be staying cautious. Nevertheless, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snap a cool selfie like this.

At first glance, you might see this image and think what am I looking at? But this indicates the weather for one glorious day in Montana compared to Florida, and it’s absolutely insane. There was a 160-degree difference in how it was supposed to feel between the two states, despite being only a four-hour flight apart. Elk Park, Montana, had a wind chill of -74 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning, while Miami, Florida, was in the 80s.

Here is another example of just how extreme the weather has been in North America. Most people would never think they would encounter this problem in their lifetime, but there’s a first for everything. This outlet began freezing over. Yes, you read that right. Temperatures were so freezing and below zero that the outlet actually formed ice over it. Clearly, this photo is mind-boggling, but it’s also an incredibly dangerous situation to be in! 

This winter isn’t exclusive to the east coast; it’s also wreaking havoc on the Pacific Northwest! Washington and Oregon have seen some pretty scary weather. These areas have been getting hit with hours of nonstop freezing rain, leaving everything in a layer of ice. Just like this image, the ice formed over the window appears at first to just be the glass but reveals it’s actually a layer of ice.

Now, this might be hilarious, shocking, or both at the same time. But, this family had their clothes drying outside on clotheslines and forgot to bring them in before the weather got awful. Before they knew it, each clothing item was utterly frozen. The chilling air froze each item in the exact position it was hanging, as you can see in the photo. Now they’ll just be cold, crunchy, and hard.

Texas was also hit with extreme arctic weather, and there’s no lack of shocking situations. One guy spent his Saturday morning searching for outrageous icicles, and he was not let down. He found this car wash that completely froze over. It may look like soap spilled everywhere, and it’s simply covered in foam, but it’s actually ice built up! It seems like no one is getting a car wash anytime soon.

When you first look at this image, what do you see? It seems like an abyss of grey and white. Can you believe this is actually a snow drift that sits 10 feet high? Buffalo, New York, is getting hit with the worst blizzard people have seen for years and the snow piling up this high is a powerful sight to see. Can you tell which way the wind was blowing?

What do you do when your driveway is getting snowed in? Well, of course, you have to grab your shovel and willpower and start shoveling! This lady did just that, but it wasn’t an easy feat. It was so unbearably cold outside that she was covered with an inch of snow and ice by the time before she could even finish. She’ll have to do that every day at the rate this snow is falling.

With this crazy weather, Buffalo, New York, doesn’t seem like the best place to live right about now. Here are some images from one night there when a blizzard and insanely strong wind hit. To describe the weather as chilly would be an understatement. People’s doors are entirely frozen, and trees are falling over, covered in snow and ice. The mixture of snow 6 feet high and 80 mph wind is scary.

This image captures another nightmare of a situation to find yourself in. When the temperature gets too cold, your pipes can burst and freeze entirely. Why would that be a problem? All the water already in the pipe is frozen, blocking the drain, and making it impossible for the existing water to go down the drain. Or if the pipe breaks, the water inside will flood everywhere! A lose-lose situation.

Snow can be fun if you go snowboarding, sledding, or even make some snowballs. But when it gets this severe, it’s not fun anymore. It just becomes difficult to carry on with your day-to-day activities. The snowstorm was so bad here that people couldn’t drive and had no lights or gas for over 24 hours. This made it really challenging and even impossible for police and ambulance to reach people in emergencies. 

Yes, this is all snow. No, you’re not looking at the floor. This is the view outside of someone’s window! There is so much snowfall that it’s reaching heights people haven’t seen in ages. If you look closely, you can see a tree peering over the top of the snow. Just for comparison, you can imagine just how high this snow is building up—quite an unsettling and magnificent view to see.

This image is pretty cool and really captures just how cold it is. That isn’t ice or snow but water from the lakefront fully frozen. It appears to be grey and brown because the water has a lot of runoff, like leaves, sand, and dirt in the water. So although it doesn’t look like a snowy winter wonderland, it sure does make an awesome photo. Who knew frozen water could make for spectacular photography?

It’s impressive just how much the below-freezing temperatures can affect everything, including this pole. The water inside the bar expanded so much while freezing that the pressure pushed the railing right off! People probably never thought this would happen, but there seems to be a good use for drilling a hole at the bottom of poles now to allow for drainage. North America is really falling apart at the seams! 

At first, this photo looks like a polka dot street or maybe even a game of extreme twister. But this is, in fact, a driveway and street In Oregon that completely froze overnight, causing a thick layer of ice to form. Driving on this would be impossible because the tires would just slide. Even trying to walk on this would immediately cause you to slip. It’s basically one big ice rink.

The city of Seattle is covered in black ice! Thanks to the freezing rain, the entirety of Seattle, Washington, is covered in an inch of ice. If anybody decides to drive on this, there is no doubt their car will spin out, and no one wants to get in an accident! It may seem like no big deal and even look pretty cool from the photos, but it can be really unsafe.

What a beautiful Christmas gift to wake up to! Apparently, a neighbor left for a holiday and completely forgot to lock the door that leads from outside to the entryway. Why was that so bad? As you can see, the door blew open overnight, and the blizzard was in full effect. Unfortunately, this meant that snow got everywhere, completely filling their entryway. This person got to spend Christmas morning shoveling snow out of their hallway.

The snow has been so bad that it’s nearly impossible to see a few feet in front of you. However, as the visibility started to clear, people noticed that the snow was piled so high it was nearly taller than most people! For reference, this guy is around 6ft tall, and the snow is just as high. Now, this is one crazy blizzard to get stuck in. We bet they could definitely make a cool snowman.

Can you tell what this is at first? Probably not, so let us give you some insight. This incredible photo captured ice formed around a rain chain. It’s pretty surreal to see how intense this winter has been for so many places in North America. It encapsulates how difficult it is to deal with this brutal weather. Even the rain chains that are meant to help direct water away from the foundation of your home can’t help.

Welcome to the East Coast. Chicago, Illinois, is known to get unbearably cold in the wintertime, and here is a prime example. The Chicago river is so cold that it’s actually steaming. The day this person snapped this picture, the temperature was -9 degrees with a windchill of -40 degrees. It’s a fantastic photo, but it seems pretty brutal to try and bear a winter this cold. You’d need to wear about fifty layers.

Not only is it snowing for days, but the winds are so intense and strong that they blow everything over. Here is a photo that shows a local gas station in Buffalo, NY, completely knocked over. That is just a terrifying sight to see. You can also see in the other image the view from someone’s window that shows just how snowy it is. It’s hard to even see in front of you because there’s so much snow!

Many southern states like Mississippi still have sun and greenery despite the absolutely freezing temperatures. This photo perfectly captures this because you can see the green trees in the background and the frozen water. There are so many icicles everywhere that this backyard surely turned into a sculpture garden. There is no doubt this is a brutal winter, and many people are seeing things like this in their very own backyards.

Tons of people are experiencing things they’ve never seen in their lives, with this winter being so horrible. It’s been so cold that door handles are freezing from the inside. This can make it difficult to open and cause the door to be completely stuck. This might feel like no big deal for those who live year-round in cold places. But for those who don’t, and this is a phenomenon, it can get scary.

What a gorgeous sight! These side-by-side images look like something from a Tim Burton or Christmas movie. The blizzard in Buffalo, New York, has really taken over, and here’s a great example. A before and after of the same house from right before the blizzard hit to right after. The amount of snowfall is insane, although it does make for an incredible photograph. Hopefully, those amazing trees will grow back fast enough.

Texas isn’t a place known for its cold weather, but this year it’s different. These photos caught a fountain and bench in Houston, Texas, completely encased in layers of thick ice as the temperature dropped into the low teens. Someone clearly forgot to turn off the fountain before the harsh cold weather hit, so all of the water flowing around the fountain froze right in place. Sort of a remarkable sight to see.

What a crazy image. Many towns that are experiencing this harsh of weather and snowfall have never seen this before. This guy opened his door to so much snow buildup it was completely blocking the doorway. The snow even had indentations of the door on it. At this point, it’s hard to tell if this is spectacular or absolutely scary. Either way, this guy should probably collect all the snow and build a snowman.

There is no denying that it is so cold it’s unbearable! People’s windows are even forming ice. Hopefully, they at least have good heating. Otherwise, you’d probably be sitting in your house with ten layers of clothes and blankets on just to feel warm. Who could imagine it could get this cold? Though it is a rare photo that captures something most people wouldn’t even think to look at or think about.

Not everyone was prepared for the type of weather and winter that hit this year. Just like this person who didn’t own a shovel before this ice storm took over. So what did they do? They improvised and used a spatula to try and shovel the ice off of their driveway! We think they’ll probably need a bigger spatula than that if they actually want to make any progress but good effort.

Woah, what a powerful image. Here’s a shot of the same shed before and after some intense snowfall. Although it might look fluffy and gorgeous, this is really hard to live in. The snowfall is actually over 6 feet high. You could hardly even walk outside! But at least it does make for a beautiful photo. It’s amazing what mother nature can do. This town should officially be a set for a Hallmark Christmas movie.