The brutal cold that gripped much of the eastern United States earlier this month left behind a stunningly beautiful sight along the shores of Lake Erie.

Julie Oglesbee of Marblehead, Ohio, captured photos of the mountains of ice that gathered along the shore in the northern Ohio city of Port Clinton.

The photos posted over the weekend on her Facebook page show scenes that look more like the Arctic than northern Ohio.

Oglesbee told weather.com it was an amazing sight to see.

"Some of the pieces of ice were 5 inches thick, while others were as much as 20 inches," Oglesbee said. 

Temperatures in Port Clinton plummeted below freezing for several weeks, with a low temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on Jan. 6. Within days, Lake Erie was covered in ice, as satellite images captured by NASA on Jan. 6 showed. 

As warmer temperatures moved in, the ice began to break up. Wind and waves then pushed the ice towards shore, creating mountains of ice.

An ice shove occurs when strong winds over a prolonged period blow from the same direction quickly pushing ice from a lake or ocean onshore, weather.com meteorologist Linda Lam said.

Strong water currents can also create ice shoves,  Lam said. The result is large pieces of ice piling up because movement of the ice slows down once it reaches land.