Winter is coming to towns along the shores of the Great Lakes—literally, as walls of ice have risen from the lakes and piled up on shorelines.

These ominous “ice tsunamis”—some of which are big enough to overwhelm lampposts and retaining walls—aren't marketing stunts for the final season of Game of Thrones. Instead, they're piles of broken-up ice blown to shore by especially strong winds.

Since Sunday, gusts of 60 miles an hour or more have been hammering the region around the Great Lakes, knocking out power and delaying air travel. Pictures shared on social media and by local emergency services also show sprawling floes of ice cluttering up beaches, roads, and even some lakeside residences.

"We've had storms in the past