Winter 2013-2014: Mother Nature Fury

So as we finally get on with the 2014 growing season, we look back at what was probably the most brutal winter this generation has ever experienced in Toronto. Stretching from Manitoba all the way to Newfoundland, and south into Florida, we became familiar with meteorological terms such as the "polar vortex". And a vortex it was. The weather pattern was surprisingly consistent throughout the season, with days that were above freezing can be counted with one hand. And consistent it was, with day after day of temperatures reaching -25C at night, and -15C during the day. It wasn't necessarily the snow that was bad (just by observation alone, there was probably less snow that fell) but it was the persistent cold that prevented the snow from melting. 

The first storm of the season was earlier than normal. A storm hit December 14, when more than a foot of snow blanketed the area. Anywhere west of the Credit River basically saw 30+ cm, and east of that saw much less. Areas to the south saw a mix of precipitation.

The climax was, of course, the December ice storm, that crippled the entire region in about 2.5 cm (no not mm, but cm) of ice accretion. Likely one of the worst ice storms to have ever hit the city in generations (see a pattern here?), it literally caused damage and destruction to hundreds of thousands of trees in Southern Ontario. Thousands of people lost power in a large swath of area, with some unable to get their power back for weeks. For many, it was a very depressing Christmas Day. For others, we were blessed that we had power, and unspoiled Christmas dinners. 

The photos below show the power of ice (other photos were also posted the day of the ice storm as well). Such a simple beauty to view, but the dangers of it is real. We had so much ice that you could literally slide on the sidewalk. The trees were covered in so much ice, that when the wind gently blows, there is a odd silence in the air, but the creaking and breaking of ice on the trees are the only things you here. It took me an hour to break off all the ice on the car windows, and another hour scraping the ice off the driveway. And there was no choice. If you didn't do it that day, the ice will stick for the rest of the season, and many were punished for being lazy.