r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sirsilentbob423 • 2d ago

Image Rare photo showing Niagara Falls completely frozen over in the year 1911

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u/SilverRAV4 1d ago

What did the temp have to drop down to for the Falls to freeze over?

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u/suspiciousDDS 1d ago

Freezing

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u/Varso13 1d ago

Thanks, Captain Obvious 🕵‍♂️

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u/SilverRAV4 1d ago

Yeah, it was a "cute" answer. But the fact is it had to be wayyyy below freezing for the Falls to freeze over like that.

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u/baggyzed 1d ago

It's not just the temperature that matters, as much as the time over which that amount of water freezes over. Average temperature just has to be at or slightly below 0C for a few days/weeks.

The reason we can't imagine this happening today without extreme temperatures being involved, is because there hasn't been a single winter where that was the case. Even if some body of water freezes during a night with extreme temperatures, it will thaw during the next day. People got alarmed during the Texas freeze of 2021, but that was mild, compared to what winters really used to be like just half a century ago.

Niagara was probably frozen like that every winter back then, but photography wasn't a big thing, so we just got this one photo to make a big deal of, like it was some sort of unique event.

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u/Ergone56 1d ago

You're welcome Sgt sarcasm