Fifty years ago, city lay buried after a record winter for snow
A regular weekly look-back at some offbeat or interesting stories that have appeared in the Citizen over its 175-year history.
Today, a real, genuine, proper snow job:
The worst day in what remains the snowiest winter in Ottawa's history occurred 50 years ago, on Feb. 13, 1971, when, according to Environment Canada's weather station at the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, 32 cm of snow landed on Ottawa's streets, yards and houses, burying the city in an avalanche of white. (A wide range of measurements were recorded at different stations, from 16.8 cm at city hall, to 40.6 cm at Lemieux Island).
Truth be told, though, the city was already white.
A record 444.6 cm fell in the winter of 1970-71, and residents didn't see bare ground for 139 consecutive days. While the snowfall on Feb. 13 was nowhere near the record — 40.6 cm fell on March 2, 1947, while earlier reports describe snowfalls of 55.9 and 54.1 cm in 1894 and 1912, predating the official airport records — the month was particularly harsh. The 159.7 cm that fell at the airport that February remains a record. There were only six days in February 1971 without some snowfall, and an equal number of days when 10 cm or more fell.
It might be indicative of how commonplace snow was that winter that, on the Monday following the 32-cm snowfall, the Citizen's coverage, including photographs
of buried cars and people shovelling the roofs of their houses, was relegated to Page 19.
“Hey, the sky fell!” the headline somewhat casually read, while the accompanying story told of cars simply abandoned on streets, including the Queensway, and towtruck yards filled to capacity.
One driver, blinded by snow and attempting to avoid a snow blower near Farrellton, Que., drove through a snowdrift and plummeted 20 feet onto the ice of the Gatineau River.
At least two buildings collapsed under the weight of the snow: Beaupre Automotive Services on
Gladstone Avenue, and a wooden building on Seneca Street that housed snowmobiles and trailers.
Ten city building inspectors, meanwhile, checked houses street by street, warning homeowners about perilous amounts of snow on their roofs.
Travel sputtered. About 20 Air Canada flights were cancelled over the weekend, while others ran hours late.
A bus from Watertown, N.Y., arrived 13 hours behind schedule, while a Toronto-bound bus made it only as far as Perth before turning around.