Dear Alicia,
I’m one of those people who actually loves snow and I am missing our beautiful white Canadian winters…which got me to thinking about the blizzard of 1977. I’m sure most people who were around at that time will remember it. But I was also wondering, are there any other recorded snow storms that were as bad or worse than that?
From,
Hoping For Snow
Dear Hoping For Snow,
You’re not the only one hoping for a winter wonderland. I am really missing the sunny days, bright blue skies and scenes of crisp winter white.
Lots of people talk about the legendary “Blizzard of ‘77” and those who were living in St. Catharines at that time usually have a story to tell about the escapades they experienced. In fact, there is a great book written on the event called: “White Death: Blizzard of ‘77” by Erno Rossi.
I did a little digging and found that there have been many significant winter weather events in the region over the years including the ice jam in the Niagara River in 1938 that brought down Niagara Falls View Bridge (a.k.a. Honeymoon Bridge).
One that really caught my attention was another blizzard that buried St. Catharines, however it is not as well known. Believe it or not, it occurred on March 17th, 1936. Snow started falling at 1a.m. and by the time it stopped a record 66 centimeters fell. People dubbed it: “The Luck of the Irish”. It was reportedly the worst blizzard to hit the Niagara Region since 1900.
Roads were blocked off so that people from surrounding municipalities could not get in or out of St. Catharines, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Falls, Welland or even Hamilton. There were snow drifts well over two metres high which forced hundreds of people to abandon their cars on the outskirts of the city. Sleighs were used to rescue passengers from stranded buses. Even snow plows got buried in the drifts. The roof of the Fort Erie arena collapsed and shoveled mounds of snow along sidewalks towered over people’s shoulders, forming snow tunnels!
If you think a blizzard near the end of March is bad, in 1940 there was a snowstorm that may have been inconvenient but left picturesque snowy scenes in spring!
Note to readers: This is the final Ask Alicia blog post. Thank you again to all of my readers. Stay tuned in two weeks for my new blog series: “A Walk Around Town” which is a throwback to a series of articles written by Junius for the St. Catharines Journal newspaper in the mid 1800’s.
Wonderful snow stories , the hardship back then must have been difficult .
I experienced the Blizzard of 17, it was amazing, so cool to see the Blizzard or 1936 and that it was on St. Patrick’s Day – wow!! Going to miss the Ask Alicia’s but will be looking forward to your new blog Alicia
Cheryle…I think perhaps you meant the Blizzard of ’77 not ’17…..I don’t think your were alive then LOL. But yes, we remember the Blizzard of 1977 very well and our kids had a hay day in the snow! Our power was off for awhile but we had a wood fireplace to keep us warm and made sandwiches for supper. Nice a cozy inside for sure. We have pictures of the snow along the side of our house that covered our vehicles and the kids could touch the lines at the height of the snow, coming into the house. My husband made it home safely after working at TRW, along with a friend that could not make it home…he lived in Pelham. We all shovelled out the next day and days afterward.
[…] out this short retrospective of blizzards in the St. Catherines, Ontario area. As I type this sentence, it’s snowing in Richmond again. […]
[…] in Fort Erie, home of an early Buffalo Bisons hockey team. (also see St Catharines museum link on St Patrick’s Day storm) The biggest March snowstorm on record in Niagara is likely the massive winter storm that struck […]
I lived in Fort Erie from 2002-2009 and all everyone mentioned was the snow storm of ’77 pictures are through the town .