It's a reality more in keeping with media warnings from the 1970s than today's arguments about global warming. Then, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, the dean of American journalism, was warning about an "ice age." Cronkite cited scientific claims that the Earth was cooling and "the full extent of the new ice age won't be reached for 10,000 years." That's completely different from the media's line today that global warming is settled science. NBC Nightly News reported February 23 that Dallas was paralyzed "after an entire season's worth of sleet and freezing rain, up to two inches, fell in a single day," causing massive traffic problems. Similar scenes happened in other southern states as the cold swept across the nation. Single-digit temperatures hit New York City and Newark saw temperatures as low as 8 degrees on February 23, NOAA said. Massive pileups mangled cars, Louisianans built snowmen and thousands flocked to Letchworth State Park, near Rochester, N.Y. to see a 53-foot tall ice fountain that keeps growing as record lows abound in the Northeast, CBS reported on February 25. CBS also noted Rochester experienced its coldest month since 1871.