Lake Ontario has frozen over and the pictures are mesmerising

‘Welcome to Narnia,’ says photographer

Ice plates have formed on Lake Ontario (Twitter/@john_kucko)

Lake Ontario has frozen over, and the results are spell-binding.

One of the five Great Lakes of North America, it has formed ice plates along the shoreline after a cold snap saw temperatures plunge to -7C.

The spectacle was caught on camera by veteran TV anchor and photographer John Kucko, who used a drone to video the lake in all its icy glory.

He shared pictures and footage of the transformation on Twitter, writing: “Welcome to Narnia: The ‘ice plates’ have returned along the shoreline of Lake Ontario today with bitter wind chill in WNY (Webster, NY).”

The videos have been viewed thousands of times since he uploaded them.

They show undulating plates of ice on the surface of the water, alongside a snow and ice-covered pier and benches.

Although a spectacular sight, it’s far from unusual for Lake Ontario to freeze over.

In a normal winter, up to a quarter of the lake will be covered in ice. There have been five occasions on record when it has completely frozen over: 1830, 1874, 1893, 1912 and 1934.

In a mild winter, it won’t freeze at all.

The lake is the 13th largest in the world, and straddles the boundaries between Ontario, Canada, and New York in the US.

Last winter saw several North American landmarks freeze over in the bitter cold.

At the end of January 2019, Niagara Falls, Lake Michigan and the Chicago River all got the winter wonderland treatment, with many visitors sharing dramatic pictures online.