While some years these ice floes can remain as late on in the year as June, they are likely to have melted earlier than that this time around.

At the village of Nina, Tartu County, which has near-perfect conditions for such formations, banked-up ice stretches for several hundred meters, attracting curious visitors – though clambering over the Kendal mint cake-like deposits is strictly forbidden.

One such bystander, Eduard, called the ice "Impressive": "I've been there several times, but I've never experienced ice like this up close. I mean real icebergs."

Another visitor, Veiko told the show: "For me, it's certainly very powerful. But I still wouldn't venture to stray very far; you know how it can start to collapse there. You have to be careful. It is also beautiful to look at from afar /.../ We came from the Põltsamaa area and made a separate trip to see it all and to show our son how nature has the power to press everything together."

In previous years, there have been some larger ice barriers, some of them over 10 meters in height, but they usually take a lot longer to form. This time, the Environment Agency (Keskkonnaamet) said the ice deposits formed in just 12 hours.

Hydrologist Tanel Toots said: "Much depends on the wind direction, how much the water will start to wash them away, certainly on the air temperature, the prevailing wind direction. There have been cases where icebergs have lasted into June. But this year, that likely won't happen. This year, the pile-ups are also smaller. And it certainly also depends on the ambient temperature. You can see that."

Peipsi järv is the fourth-largest lake in Europe.

Click on the video player below to see more of the Nina ice floes.