Chicago has endured a harsh winter which has drawn visitors to witness the ice sheet covering Lake Michigan following a deep freeze.
However, with the temperatures creeping just above freezing, the ice that covered the lake is now starting to break off, as captured in a viral video on YouTube.
Recorded from WGN-TV's weather cam, the timelapse shows the satisfying sight of the ice sheet breaking away from the Chicago shoreline and drifting into Lake Michigan.
The video has accumulated over 11 million views.
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It isn't clear how many hours the footage was recorded over, but the video suggests that it appears to have happened within a day.
Meteorologist John Kassell previously shared the video on X with the caption: 'Incredible timelapse of a giant section of ice covering Lake Michigan around the Chicago shoreline breaking off and drifting away.'
In response to the amazing footage, one viewer commented: 'From someone who lives in the tropics, this is quite magical. '
Another replied: 'As a Brazilian I've never seen snow, and although I love playing with ice and semi-frozen water from my refrigerator, this scares me a little.'
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Whilst another playfully wrote: 'Imagine Ice fishing out on the piece that floated away that would really suck.'
Additionally, other videos have been shared showcasing Chicago's extreme winter weather, including one of the city's historic lighthouses encased in ice.
Lake Michigan is being impacted by climate change as one study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that the sea hundreds of feet beneath the surface is warming up.
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Craig Stow, a NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory scientist and author of the study, said: 'These changes may seem very small, a couple tenths of a degree per decade, but this has been going on for several decades now, perhaps longer than is reflected in our monitoring.
'We've known for a while now based on surface temperatures—not just in Lake Michigan but smaller lakes and large lakes worldwide—that the surface temperatures seem to be increasing.'
Chicago's police and fire authorities are warning the public to stay clear of the melting ice sheets.
One announcement read: 'Shelf Ice is extremely dangerous. While the marvels of #icebergs on the shore of #LakeMichigan are wonders of nature they can be deadly. With ice pushed on shore it is nearly impossible to know where land ends and water below ice begins Please STAY OFF.'