"Frozen" Niagara Falls draws tourists to winter spectacle
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - The winter's deep freeze has transformed Niagara Falls into an icy spectacle, encasing the trees around it into crystal shells and drawing tourists who are braving below-zero temperatures.
The falls aren't completely frozen over; the Niagara River keeps flowing below the ice cover, so the mist continues to rise, freezing on the surrounding surfaces.
Days of subzero temperatures have created a thick coating of ice and snow on every surface near the falls, including railings, trees and boulders.
The impressive ice buildup near the brink, as well as mountains of ice nearly 50 feet thick, has become a tourist magnet for the second straight year, after several relatively mild winters.
Visitors have flocked to Niagara Falls State Park, next to the American Falls, one of three waterfalls that make up the natural attraction.
Things aren't expected to thaw out soon: Temperatures dipped to 7 below zero in Niagara Falls on Friday morning.
But could the Falls freeze over completely?
CBS Affiliate WIVB meteorologist Andrew Baglini says there is simply too much water, and too much continuous movement, for this to happen. There was one instance where the river stopped flowing -- in March 1848 -- but this was actually due to a large ice jam upstream. Even then, the Falls did not freeze over.
Record-shattering cold pushing east from the Midwest has been sending temperatures plummeting in the Northeast to lows not seen in years, reports CBS News correspondent Vinita Nair.
