
Has Niagara Falls frozen, or our eyes playing tricks on us?
Last week, the Polar Vortex treated New Yorkers to an unusual sight: a frozen Hudson River, and the trend appears to have extended up north. If you’ve yet to refresh your feed, allow us to get you up to speed.
The Niagara Falls has frozen over…sort of
From roughly January 23rd onward, stunning footage across social media features an oh-so-icy Niagara Falls. Since this is one of the coldest winters we’ve experienced in 13 years, we can’t say this is a surprise…though you might want to look twice.
While yes, the viral winter content circulating on Instagram indicates that the iconic natural wonder has frozen over, this is not the case. According to the Niagara Parks website, unusually frigid temperatures will cause an icy crusty layer to form atop of the water. However, the water is still flowing underneath that sheet of ice that caused you to do a double take.
But you know how they say, “Never say never?” “Never” happened back in March of 1848 when winds set ice fields of Lake Eerie into motion. Per the Niagara Falls website, millions of tons of ice lodged at the source of the river and blocked the channel for a whopping 30 hours. Can you believe it?! (This was the case back in the day for the Hudson River as well.)
Floating 30-foot long steel pontoons, a.k.a. “ice booms”, were installed in the 1960s, which stopped this wild phenomenon from repeating. (But could you imagine if it actually did?! Those Instagram opps abound.) Learn more about the natural wonder on the Niagara Parks website and be sure to bookmark our favorite winter getaways if you’re looking to embrace the cold.