Niagara Falls Freezes Over As Temperatures Plunge in North America

The American side of the Niagara Falls partially frozen over in February 2015.
The American side of the Niagara Falls partially frozen over in February 2015. | Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Stringer/Getty Images

Niagara Falls is a powerful force of nature, but it's still at the mercy of winter weather. As Yahoo! News reports, temperatures plunged across North America in February 2021, causing the falls on both sides of the United States-Canada border to partially freeze over.

As you can see from the video below—captured on Sunday, February 21—thick ice formations coated the iconic waterfall over the weekend. Spectators were treated to an incredible sight when a rainbow appeared over the frozen landmark. The scene looks like something out of a winter fairytale.

Despite the amount of ice covering the falls, the water didn't stop flowing completely. The volume and force of the water is too great to ever freeze solid, even at extremely low temperatures. The Niagara Falls have only stopped flowing once in history, and that was due to ice from Lake Eerie clogging the mouth of the river. In the 1960s, steel ice booms were installed upriver to prevent that from happening again.

After watching the spectacular video below, read more facts about the world's most famous group of waterfalls here.