Source: Google.com
One of Canada’s Wonders: Niagara Falls Frozen
I can never get tired of Niagara Falls. Its a great place for family travel, dates and honeymoons or just some really good sightseeing. In the summer and spring Niagara Falls is gorgeous filled with tulips and flowers of every variety. In the winter it transforms into a cascading ice spectacle that becomes one of the wonders of the world.
The winter’s deep freeze has transformed Niagara Falls into an icy cascading mountain, encasing the trees around it into crystal shells — a sight that’s drawing tourists. The Niagara River keeps flowing below the ice cover, so the falls aren’t totally frozen over. But the massive ice buildup near the brink has become a tourist magnet for the second straight year after several relatively mild winters.
The polar chill gripping southern Ontario has transformed the majestic Niagara Falls into a wall of sparkling ice, driving up tourism to Canada’s wonder of nature. For the second year in a row, extended periods of frigid temperatures have caused enormous masses of ice to form at the mouth of the falls, giving the impression that torrents of cascading water have frozen solid.
The Canadian Horseshoe Falls drops about 57 metres into the Lower Niagara River and spills more than 168,000 cubic metres of water over the brink each minute during peak daytime hours, according to Niagara Parks. This winter’s unique ice formations have brought global attention to the falls. January and February have seen an increase in visitors to the city, many of whom come to view and photograph the bulbous mounds of ice and snow protruding upward from the falls’ frosty base.
According to CNN, the only time Niagara Falls’ water flow stopped completely was in 1848.