Across the United States, the Christmas period is being dominated by an extremely brutal and severe cold wave.

The video above shows incredible footage from Lake Erie, where a strong, icy north-westerly wind instantly freezes lake spray onto houses in Hamburg, New York.

Similarly in Buffalo, the freezing temperatures accompanied by wind gusts of up to 60mph, blew drifting snow across streets, completely covering parked cars. Ice also accumulated on the streets, producing very dangerous conditions.

The adverse weather conditions have caused at least 50 deaths and more than a million people have suffered blackouts and power outages.

Now however, after the coldest Christmas in years for many parts of the US, milder conditions are expected to spread across most of the eastern two-thirds of the US, just in time for New Year's Eve.