by Christine Whelan, FEO
Feb 3, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 12
I decided to write a story about Fort Erie’s snowstorms after Fort Erie had to read my last edition’s piece on Fort Erie’s windstorms while digging out of a snowstorm. Seemed appropriate, almost a calling. That was January 7th. Since then, we’ve had an even bigger storm roll over us.
This is nothing new. It’s Fort Erie’s legacy. Let’s take a little peek, shall we?
January 17, 2022
Aka, the even bigger storm. This one was a widespread event. Global News reported, “Southern Ontario woke up to a dumping of snow that fell as a major, historical, winter storm swept through the region.”
Joy Russell, a Fort Erie resident, who had a bird’s eye view a few floors up, took enchanting videos and photos of the snow falling or floating by, her window. She commented, “The snowflakes are larger than I can remember seeing. They look like birds.” In watching her videos, the snowflakes did appear to look like silhouettes of daydreaming little birds, slowly drifting by her window. Surreal.
Around the same time, at ground level, Rick Doan of Ridgeway posted on social media at 1:30am that there were about six inches of snow built up already. By 2:30am, he posted photos, captioning that the snow was really coming down.
A resident commented that through the night, Crystal Beach got a little freezing rain, then it went back to snow.
Anything goes in the Fort Erie snowstorm.
Even thunder. Thunder was heard. Thunder during a snowstorm, while rare, so seemingly strange and some call creepy, is not unheard of. Thundersnow happens when thunder and lightning occur during cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. While relatively rare, it’s more common with lake effect snow in the Great Lakes, according to Wikipedia
Southern Ontario did wake up to a snow dump. The plows, shovels and blowers came out in full force.
Dan Harkins of Fort Erie posted his photo of his snowblower moving through the snow, giving a good idea of how much was dumped. He captioned, “Gonna be a long day”.
Schools and Public Transit was cancelled that day. Since some areas were not yet dug out by the following morning, schools continued to be closed the second day.
It was reported that the Niagara Region saw 50-60 cms that day.
January 6, 2022
Global News posted beforehand, “Snow squall warning in effect as Niagara Region could see up to 20 cm.”
While a blast of lake effect snow buried Fort Erie, other Lake Erie shoreline communities, like Port Colborne and Wainfleet avoided the brunt of it.
Meteorologist, Gerald Cheng said wind direction is the main factor. “It is not uncommon for one area of the region to be pummelled while residents in nearby towns and cities can still see grass on their lawns.”
He added that it’s hard to know exactly how much lake effect snow an area gets as it does not often fall straight down and there’s the wind and drift factor.
This time, the storm was very localized to Fort Erie, which is a common occurrence, along with the phenomenon of the weather event suddenly stopping around Sodom and Lyons Creek Roads.
This time, the snow, for the most part, was light and powdery so, small blessing, it was easier to shovel off. This time.
Friday, October 13, 2006
When a “historic snowfall event” bombarded Fort Erie as the first snowstorm of the season, dumping over 30 centimetres on Fort Erie and Port Colborne, it did not go unnoticed by many that it occurred on Friday the 13th.
The Weather Network (TWN) called it a “freak Fort Erie snow blast”.
Chris Mel of TWN painted the picture. “It was in October. The trees were filled full of colours. People were taking hayrides. They were picking out their pumpkins.”
Early October 12th, the rain started. Into the afternoon, the rain picked up. “Through the overnight, the temperature dropped like a stone and it turns into wet snow. The leaves in the trees caught the wet snow. And with the strong wind, the trees were buckling and then breaking.
Residents reported hearing tree limbs cracking throughout the night, sounding like gunshots.
The QEW was closed and the Peace Bridge was shut down during the storm. Some residents reported being without power for over a week.
It took months to recover.
Blizzard of ’77
Erno Rossi’s book, White Death is a wonderful and popular resource for learning about what Rossi called, “The only blizzard declared a major natural and national disaster by the American and Canadian governments. The blizzard of the century.”
I find it fitting to quote his words to provide a peek into those unforgettable days that are still talked about within the parametres of the Greater Fort Erie area to this day.
A wall of white, as high as a mountain, flowed across the ice. That wall of snow hit land with hurricane force. The blizzard of the century had arrived.
Rossi wrote, “The temperature plunged to near zero Fahrenheit as hurricane force winds roared across the frozen surface of Lake Erie. Temperature and wind combined to create a wind chill of 60 below zero. Visibility was also zero and remained there from 11:30 a.m on the 28th until 12:50 a.m on the 29th of January. The storm did not subside until February.”
The snow had built up on the surface of the ice across the lake. Ten thousand square miles of snow powder blew inland and buried people in their cars and homes.
Thousands of people were stranded in office buildings, schools, police stations, fire halls, bars, factories, cars, houses and in the homes of strangers. Most highways and airports were closed. Snow paralysis had set in.
Quoting Rossi, “In Canada, approximately 2000 students who were trapped for several days in urban and rural schools. Many of the young people had never been separated from their parents for a long period of time.”
All of the Regional Municipality of Niagara was placed in a state of emergency on January 29 and this remained in effect until February 2, 1977. CB radios and snowmobiles suddenly became essential for rescue missions.
The price tag on the Blizzard of ’77 was about 300 million dollars.
What Have We Learned?
I remember, as a child, listening to the adults talk about that blizzard in 1977. The comments I heard repeated — we didn’t see it coming; it came as a surprise; there was no warning.
This January, the storm, even though it did not turn out to be comparable to ’77, was foretold far and wide. Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the Niagara Region well before January 17th. Everyone seemed to know it was coming. Communications are different now and easier to spread such news. People were prepared this time. We have learned the signs, the foreshadowing. And we hunker down when needed, taking care of each other, understanding that it’s better to be safe than sorry.
We can’t stop the snow but we can be warned. We can be aware of the dynamics of the Fort Erie storms, both wind and snow. And we can be prepared. Once prepared, all there is left to do is ride out the storm.
Photo provided from Rick Doan, Downtown-Ridgeway-after-dug-out
