Baby, it’s cold outside!

Once again, a cold snap has hit North America. And the headlines proclaim:

·         Ontario: Record-breaking cold temps ahead of more poorly timed snow (The Weather Network – November 13^th)

·         Record-crushing cold and abnormally early snow sweep over eastern half of Lower 48 states (The Washington Post – November 13^th)

·         70% of the country will experience freezing temperature this week (CNN – November 12^th)

Is this the worst it can get, or has ever been? A quick search of records reveals it is not.

No doubt people will lament that they can never remember the recent weather has ever been this bad. And, once again, they will be wrong. A few might remember the blizzard that hit Storm of the Century that hit most of Quebec in January 1998 when everything was covered in thick ice, resulting in damage and production costs exceeding $5.4 billion.

I wrote about a major winter blizzard around Thanksgiving in 1950 that dumped rain and snow across the eastern Appalachians, accompanied by hurricane-force winds (Natural Disasters and Family Misfortunes 10: Appalachian Storm 1950). The US National Weather Service lists 34 Major Winter Storms that occurred between 1887 and 2017.

People may recall news of the Beast from the East that struck much of northern Europe in February 2018, bringing heavy snowfall and bone-chilling cold. Some weather forecasters are indicating it could happen again this coming winter which could result in the “coldest winter in 30 years.”

 

A car stuck in a snow drift in Thwaite, North Yorkshire, on March 18, 2018 (source: The Times)

In North American, in the last century, the most intense cold happened in 1936, freezing regions across the Midwestern US and Prairie Provinces of Canada.

 

February 1936 US Temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit. Record warmest and coldest is based on a 112-year period of records, 1895–2006.

The upshot, of course, is that bad weather (and good weather it should be noted) can happen any time.In February of this year, several cold weather records were broken in British Columbia, one set 90 years ago. West coasters were not used to or expecting the frigid conditions.

 

Families make their way the tobogganing areas at Queen Elizabeth Park Tuesday morning. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Weather is not climate! Such cold, miserable and even death-bringing events have always happened. They only appear worse when they strike where many people live and where significant infrastructure is present that can be damaged.