When you visit this natural wonder of the world, you expect the 3,160 tons of water every second to come hurling over the waterfalls, until this wintery moment where it wasn't.

With near-record low temperatures on New Year's Day, even hearty Western New Yorkers headed straight indoors to stay warm.

Niagara Falls and Buffalo New York are accustomed to extreme weather and brutal winters. While mass amounts of snowfall are typical, these types of sub-freezing temperatures this early in the winter are not typical.

The area around the falls tends to ice over, but rarely does the water stop flowing.

And the results are not to be missed.

"We come to see the wonders of nature, and the beauty of winter, really. The beauty also comes with a lot of cold right now," Kevin McGowan, a Buffalo native who lives in Florida, told WGRZ-TV.

While the river and falls remain unaffected by the cold temperatures, the mist, rocks, surrounding trees and railings turn into a majestic scene of ice.

Given the forecast for the prolonged deep-freeze, there's a chance that the frozen conditions created during the polar vortex of 2014 could happen again. That's when Niagara Falls was brought to a halt twice in the span of two weeks.

If that happens again, it would be worth the frosty trip to go and check it out.

This is as cool as when the falls ran dry! Check out that story.

Source: Independent / USA Today