Finally a major snow storm

Tags

Charlottetown, PEI, snow, storm, Wind, winter

Until 11 am on Friday 7 Jan. we did not have a speck of snow, we had been warned that a major storm was coming our way, 50CM of snow or 19 inches in 10 hours, with winds of 100 km per hour, enough to close the sea bridge over the strait and close all businesses. Schools are closed until 18 January. By 2pm all stores were closing and people were told to go home and not go out, too dangerous. The water surge and high waves is another problem around the Island, powerful winds and waves erode the coast and many with property on the water have to take heed and not go for a walk on the beach. This type of snow is heart attack inducing, very wet and heavy, so just leave it there. We have a fellow who comes with his big tractor to plow it all in 5 minutes.

The wind is howling it feels like a 747 is over the house constantly, the doors and windows are rattling. I did go to the grocery store this morning around 10:30 am to get our Storm Chips, which is a tradition on the Island. The major part of the storm will be over night and in the morning it should only be high winds. I suppose Winter is here now.

We cannot see out the windows because this snow is heavy with water and it freezes and sticks to glass, so we cannot see out. Hopefully we will not lose power, living in the core of the Capital surrounded by Government buildings helps, though the Electrical Company is very good with fast repairs. We have not seen any snow plows, visibility is zero right now on the streets but I suspect they may appear around 4AM to start opening the streets. The sidewalks will likely be cleaned later in the day.

This time the snow is here to stay, for the rest of the week looks like the temperature will be around -10C to -20C. Oh well I have no where to go.

Live picture about 04:30PM this afternoon in Charlottetown.

Storm Chip Day in PEI

Tags

chips, hurricane, Newfoundland, PEI, snow, storm, storm chips, Wind

During the night we could hear the roar of the wind outside, a very big storm is over the Atlantic, passing well South of Halifax in Nova Scotia, we avoided the snow however this storm brings with it very powerful winds. So early this morning the calls went out, all schools remain closed and the University and Holland College also closed. Funerals are postponed for a day, businesses closed early or never opened. Looking out my window I could see visibility was very poor and snow drifts made things worse. The Police advised people to stay home and not take the car anywhere unless it was an emergency. The wind chill factor brings the temperature to about -28 C or -19 F. danger of frosbites. For my dear readers who complain of 57 F as very cold try -19 F for a laugh.

Water street deserted, our street quiet and peaceful.

Prince street looking across the street from our house, the Water Prince Lobster restaurant is quiet for the Winter, re-opening on 15 April for Spring Lobster Season. Love the place this is where we had Will’s Birthday party in December with fresh oysters and lobster. 

Will made from scratch chicken soup and biscuits, who said I wanted to give him away. But things are much worse in Newfoundland across the Gulf of St-Lawrence from us. In St-John’s the capital, the Mayor has declared a state of emergency and shut the city down.  only emergency vehicles, police and fire can circulate. Everyone else is ordered inside at home, the City is getting 70cm of snow in a few hours or 2 feet of snow with winds approaching 150Km per hour which is well into hurricane strength. This is the second such storm this Winter in Newfoundland which is unusual for them and more is coming apparently.

Here on PEI there is an advisory for the Confederation bridge over the Strait to the mainland, I would not want to drive over that sea bridge in high wind, it takes 10 minutes to drive over, scary is the word. Charlottetown airport is closed, flights cancelled or delayed. The streets are deserted.

We could have gone to the Club tonight which is only 4 blocks away down Water Street but the weather is poor and it is very cold and very windy. Overnight the winds will decrease from 70km to 60Km but still more snow drifts etc. Then tomorrow we are suppose to get some snow with the high winds and Sunday might bring more of the same.

So today Will wanted some whip cream and some yogurt for a recipe, I walked over to the convenience store to get him those items but did not linger. Strangely because of the high winds today we did get some patches of blue and some sun for a few minutes.

We have our Official Storm Chips for today so all is well. Covered Bridge a company from New Brunswick makes good chips. Good booze is also de rigueur on such days. A Maritime tradition.

So today we are listening to Emmanuel Chambrier, Pièces Pittoresques composed in 1881. Of the 10 pièces, Idylle and Danse Villageoise are probably the best known. On such a storm day what else can you do. Even our little ones Nicky and Nora don’t want to go out in such awful weather. They prefer to snooze listening to French music.

 

 

 

 

Intermission

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

Well this morning we got up and the storm has stopped or past us, the wind is still pretty strong but is diminishing gradually. The Confederation sea bridge is still closed to all traffic, it has been closed for 12 hours now and I can just imagine that many trucks on the mainland side in New Brunswick are just waiting, parked in the special area for the bridge to re-open. The weather was just as bad in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Cape Breton (Isle Royale) sticking out into the Atlantic, they always get the brunt of all storms.  What it means for us on PEI is that the grocery stores will start having shortages in fresh produce like salad and imported fruits from the USA or South America. You can still get the essentials since we have lots of farmers and livestock farms.

My main concern is digging my car out from under the snow, right now the front of the car is buried in snow, our parking lot is clean, the plow guy came by early around 5am and cleaned it all out. The City and the Province have re-started the plowing of the streets and the highway and secondary roads after a 12 hour stop, so now they have to catch up. Matt Rainnie the host of CBC Island morning was telling us that another storm is coming this is just a break, an intermission if you like, the new storm should arrive by early hours of Thursday and dump another 25 cm of fresh snow. So Wednesday off I go for more food shopping and essentials.

 

I don’t think I would want to live outside of a major town on PEI in Winter, here we have all the services and living at the corner of two main city arteries means the roads are cleaned first. I heard stories of people in the country side and they are left to fend for themselves, no one can get to them, the wind is too high and there is too much snow on the road. Stories from last night are of 3 babies being born during the height of the snow at home. The way it is organized on PEI is when a storm hits, emergency plows stand by at Fire Halls, all of whom are staff by volunteer fire fighters. If a call comes in the emergency plow will open up the road for the Fire trucks and hopefully make it on time to help, like in the case of births at home. It becomes a neighbourhood affair, since everyone knows everyone else.

 

There are some tragedies of homes burning down and the Fire dept can’t get to them because the driveway to the Farm house is 200 feet long and has not been plowed or is too narrow. Last night a big barn full of bails of hay burned, the storm delayed the Fire Dept by 3 hours. Many of our secondary roads are also nothing more than soft red earth which in Winter turns to hard icy roads and are not necessarily plowed.

I don’t think many people will be going out for Valentine’s day given the state of the roads and everything is closed today anyway. Just stay home and read and enjoy the day. Until the next storm on Thursday morning.

I have to say that the City of Charlottetown is doing a wonderful job of cleaning the streets quickly and efficiently, a much better job than Ottawa who never seemed to be able to clean streets unless you called your City Councillor to complain.

The world is a small town

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

This saying figures in the title page of my blog. This is certainly true of where we are now. We go to Receiver Coffee three times a week when I am done with my duty at the Art Gallery. It is the in spot on Richmond Street behind the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

The food is quite good and the coffee superb, they also have art on the walls for sale by young emerging artists. Currently they have amongst others a photographer who is also a barber at one of the Hip Barber shops in town. His name is Jared Doyle and he has an account on Instagram Ivory Orphan. Looking at his portfolio I notice that we know all the people featured, same at the Café, everywhere we go now, look around and you see friends, acquaintances, neighbours or prominent citizens, we speak to everyone, exchange greetings and news. It is that sort of a place.

This morning I was listening to CBC Island Morning with Matt Rainnie and Rich Cormier, there is a big storm coming says Matt so you should go to the grocery store and stock up because Friday morning it is going to be a snow day and no one should be on the road. He is speaking about the entire Province of Prince Edward Island not just Charlottetown the Capital. As I write this the storm has arrived and already the wind is howling at 80Km per hour and we are expecting 40 Cm of snow or 16 inches in the next 5 hours, which is significant. The winds will top 100km in about one hour, the bridge to the mainland has is closed to all traffic and the Canadian Coast Guard has come into the harbour to dock for the night, I can understand they don’t want to be out at sea in this weather.

So I followed Matt Rainnie advice and went to the SuperStore to stock up on all the food items we may need. I was not alone at the store and it was a chance to speak with people about this and that, at the Deli counter a lady was exchanging news with the Deli Counter clerk, the polite thing to do is wait until she finishes the story, you don’t want to barge in, she might be someone’s cousin you know.

Got my shopping done, it was a beautiful day today but by 6 pm the clouds had accumulated and on the news they were giving us the run down of all the places that were cancelling activities tonight, all of it re-scheduled for a Saturday or later. So it is pretty obvious no school tomorrow, the University and College are closed. Many businesses will not open and very likely the government will also be shut down for the day. The airport has already cancelled the evening flights and many delays for tomorrow, so call ahead. At any rate who wants to land or take off in 80 Km winds, not me.

I still had to take the dogs out, they did not want to go out too much wind and blowing snow for them, but out we go, not far like a few feet do what you have to do and turn around quick.

Yes we live in Mayberry and it is a nice feeling, everyone will be at home tomorrow and just read and relax until the storm passes.

28 November

Tags

Charlottetown, North Eastern, PEI, snow, Wind, winter

The day Winter arrived to PEI. Up until now we had a mild Autumn and lovely sunny days. But on the night of the 27 to 28 a North Eastern Wind blew in with great force at 110KM per hour and bringing with it snow and rain. Some 12,000 people on the Island lost power and we all knew Winter had arrived. This meant school closing and warning about icy roads. The Ferries were cancelled and the Confederation bridge to the mainland had severe restrictions on motor traffic crossing, with such high winds I would not want to drive on that bridge 150 meters in the air over 12 km.

This morning a brilliant sunshine and mild weather, the snow is melting and with it we got dazzling sunlight which you only see in Winter.

During the night we were woken up by the snow clearance machines at 3:00 and 4:30am. I did not get up to move the car in our lot, too much trouble. The snow with all the water in it was like concrete, lucky thing I did not have to shovel it.

Another storm is predicted for Tuesday night with again high powerful winds, Winter here is about the wind more than anything else. Lucky we live in the centre of the Capital so we are somewhat protected from losing power, but I am always concerned about the big old trees in such storms and big branches falling. We do have a lot of big ancient trees all around.