These photos of a frozen Niagara Falls will make you feel icy cold

Usually the Maid of the Mist ferries tourists into the spray churned up by 2.3million gallons of water crashing over the Niagara Falls each second.

But the ice below is too thick for any tour boats to break through since the Niagara River, on the border of the USA and Canada, froze over this week.

Temperatures dropped as low a -7°C on Tuesday morning, and they’re expected to do so again overnight, turning the usually noisy landmark into a winter wonderland.

It’s becoming an increasingly common occurrence – the falls last froze in 2022 – but it’s rare for the water to stop entirely.

The flow is so powerful that even today the water is still moving, including it places where it appears at first to be suspended mid-air.

You see, the first to freeze is the mist and spray rising from the base of each fall. As that crusts over, it creates a cover for the water to continue flowing out of sight.

It’s been 183 years since the falls fully froze in 1848. Local tourism board Destination Niagara USA said: ‘During a frigid snap that March, high winds shifted massive ice fields across Lake Erie causing millions of tons of ice to block the source of the Niagara River.

‘With both the volume and speed of the water tanking (along with some polar temperatures causing a chill) the Falls were brought to an icy standstill and a frozen cascade was created over the Falls.

‘The Falls remained frozen for 30 hours in total with reports at the time of people ice-skating and even riding horses over the basin.

‘Once a shift in the ice dam allowed the weight of the water to break through, the Niagara gushed forward again and the Frozen Falls melted into a place in history.’

While the falls might not fully freeze, the ice has in the past proved sturdy enough for it to briefly become tradition to gather on the frozen surface.

From the 1880s, people would erect shacks selling hot drinks, alcohol and sausages on an ‘ice bridge’ connecting the Canadian and American shores.

One 1882 account said: ‘All day long, boys in their small hand-sleds slide down these huge slopes, and sometimes, on moonlight nights, toboggan parties assemble and enjoy the exciting amusement, amidst romantic and picturesque surroundings nowhere else to be found.’

But the fun and games came to an end in 1912, when the ice bridge suddenly broken apart, tossing people into freezing water and carrying them towards the rapids. Three people died.

Now the ice bridge fairs are no long, just as it is now illegal to plunge over the falls after one too many daredevils died attempted the feat.

These days, you must be content watching from afar, or waiting for the ice to melt so the Maid of the Mist can take you ‘as close to the Falls as anyone can safely venture’.

However, that may take a while, with several more inches of snow predicted to fall on Wednesday night.

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