So, winter decided to show up for work again this year.
It began on Monday afternoon this week, not long after I'd just returned home after running some errands in downtown Outlook. I was literally back in my apartment maybe 15 minutes when I saw some very thin sheetings of white, and then I looked at my windshield and there it was.
Glistening snow.
Phew, I'm glad I managed to pour in some fresh antifreeze + engine coolant and dumped in that can of Sea Foam motor treatment! Literally just made that by minutes, haha!
But let's remember something, folks. The ground is going to mop up and soak in a substantial amount of what fell on Monday into Tuesday, so I'm not sure how thick of a blanket this one will still be come Thursday or Friday.
Still, it's rural Saskatchewan, so maybe it's officially here to stay for the season.
The arrival of 'the white stuff' of course brought with it all manner of warnings from news broadcasters left and right about how motorists need to be careful, all the while informing us of several vehicles being stranded in ditches near Saskatoon and Regina.
Leave it to certain Canadians to forget just where they call home and what happens when the snow flies every year like clockwork.
But it also made me remember back to some very epic snowfalls and storms, like this past March when the snow kept falling and falling and falling and falling and falling until everyone woke up on Monday morning and saw two or three feet of snow in their back alleys, or even as much as six or seven feet of it built up against their garages and homes.
I remember that day well because the back alley of my apartment building was essentially caved in with snow, preventing any of us with vehicles from getting in them and driving to work that morning. I was fine with that because luckily, the blue skies and the sun shining bright made the walk to work rather enjoyable and I was able to snap a bunch of very up-close photos of the massive snow drifts and piles along the way. Besides, leaving the vehicle parked at home is sometimes the best option anyway; not only for your health and your SUV's gas tank, but sometimes you can gain a new perspective on your community by just getting out and walking around it. You see and hear things you don't catch from inside a vehicle, and it's capable of bringing a new level of appreciation forward for the place you call home.
What are some other major moments in snow history across our great country? Well, Reader's Digest managed to come up with a few examples. Here are a couple:
The Ides of March Blizzard, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
March 15, 1941
What began as a warm and sunny spring Saturday quickly turned into one of the worst snowstorms in Canada’s history, as an unexpected blizzard ripped through parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Upper Midwest states, whipping up winds of over 100 kilometres an hour and killing 76 people in just seven hours.
It was a devastating type of snowstorm called an “Alberta clipper,” a fast-moving cold front sweeping in from the Rockies that brought whiteout conditions and ferocious wind chills of -45°C out of nowhere. Dressed for spring, many of the victims died of exposure after they left their stalled cars on the road and tried to walk to safety. This tragedy is said to be the main reason authorities now urge you not to leave your car if you’re stranded in a blizzard on the highway.
The Storm of the Century, Quebec
March 4, 1971
The winter of 1970-71 was an epic one, even by Montreal standards. The city already had a half-metre of snow on the ground by the time the March 4 storm hit, and 47 more centimetres would fall that day, with wind gusts of 110 kilometres per hour. Impassable roads meant residents could only get around on foot or by snowshoes, skis, and the underground metro trains. Two hundred Ski-Doo owners mobilized to provide emergency transport, rescuing trapped motorists and ferrying people to hospital.
A few weren’t so lucky—12 Montrealers died from collisions, cold or suffocation in their cars, some buried so deep they only had their antennas showing. A total of 500,000 truckloads of snow were hauled out of the city, only to have another smaller blizzard hit three days later. The total snowfall that winter was almost four metres.
These are just a couple of 'Snowmageddon' ringers from back in the day, but I personally will remember for the rest of my life the day of Monday, January 31, 2022. Does just reading the date alone bring back any memories for anyone else? That day brought with it a hell of a winter wallop. The morning was fine for commuters, and I was still living in Conquest at the time, but once I made the drive over to Outlook, soon the snow started falling and then flying, which was followed by the wind picking up serious steam, and it was just a matter of time before the warnings and cautions were flooding the online world, telling people to stay where they were.
Well, the problem with that was that I had to pick up my brother from work and we had to find our way home. Of course, when I picked him up from the John Deere dealership, I started getting a true sense of what we were in for on the highway headed home. You see, living in Outlook can sometimes shield people from the true picture of what's happening out there on the highways. I picked Brendon up, and I ended up seeing a local RCMP officer at the turn off onto Highway 15. Jess actually advised me not to go and to try and make arrangements in town for the night, but I'm a stubborn SOB, so I didn't listen and told her I'd chance it.
Sure enough, we get onto Highway 15 and I instantly knew this was a baaaaaad idea. I couldn't see what was in front of me or who may have been coming the opposite way because of the snowfall flying at high speed in all directions. I threw my hazard lights on and essentially strolled along the road. In two separate instances, a vehicle that found itself in the wrong lane came straight at me, but luckily disaster was avoided. It seemed like it took forever to arrive at the grid road turnoff heading into Conquest, and when I drove down that road, I saw two vehicles in two different spots stuck in the ditch with no one around.
Man, I'll tell ya, I couldn't have been happier when I finally pulled into the driveway, killed my engine and got into the house. Yes, I was stupid for having risked it, but we were safe, we were sound, and we were warm. All's well that ends well.
Hopefully, we're not in store for any of that kind of stuff this coming season.
Please?
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
