Back to back major winter storms slam Eastern Ontario
by Connor MockettLocal Storm Chaser & Photographer
County Road 43 west of Winchester on February 17. Photo by Brandon Mayer
It has been a pretty wild last few weeks around Eastern Ontario. After two major winter storms back to back on February 13th and February 15th and 16th, the region has more snow on the ground at this time of year than we have seen since the infamous winter of 2008. According to the Ottawa Airport, there’s about 90cm on the ground in the City, which is crazy because other parts of the region like Winchester ended up getting much more snow than Ottawa during that crazy blizzard on the 16th. I suspect North Dundas has around 90-100cm on the ground for themselves as well.
Leading up to the storm on February 13th, weather models were hinting at about 25-35cm across most of Eastern Ontario, with more like 40-50cm up into the Ottawa Valley. Now, that storm might not have performed as expected for a lot of Eastern Ontario, along the Seaway and in the Ottawa Valley to be specific, but it did feel more like a regular run-of-the-mill winter storm that we have experienced many times before – which we have! That storm was pretty hyped up not just by forecasters, but by the media as well. There was a reason for that though.
As the storm on 13th got closer, models were still pretty gung-ho about the projected snow totals. It was going to be very cold out, around -13 during most of the storm. That’s a really cold temperature for a snowstorm. With a temperature that cold, there’s less water in the snow, making the snow very powdery. In some cases, if it’s too cold out, it actually turns into a little bit more of a grainy snow with really small flakes. That’s one of the things that ended up happening on the 13th – a grainier snow. Also, just before the snow started to fall in Eastern Ontario, models started to hint at another thing that ended up being a problem and led to parts of the region seeing significantly less snow than others.
A dry slot developed in the system and was able to destroy part of the moisture needed to have continuous significant snowfall throughout the storm. A dry slot is when the Low Pressure System drags up some dry air to its south, and then that dry air gets involved in the middle of the system and picks apart the moisture and leads to less precipitation covering the region. And with less precipitation around parts of the region, that obviously means less snow for some.
Now, reports from the Ottawa Airport, reports from Kemptville, Winchester, the Ottawa Valley, and around the Embrun area all ended up saying that those places received between 25-35cm, which was the forecast! However, parts of the Seaway from Kingston to Brockville, and around Smiths Falls to Oxford Mills, only received about 10cm or less from the storm, which obviously is disappointing considering the hype going into it.
And then came the next storm 2 days later…
The Blizzard of February 15th and 16th is probably one of the more hyped up storms in recent history, much more hyped than the 13th, and boy, did it ever live up to the expectations. It was one of the worst winter storms the North Dundas area has seen in many, many years, and was the same for the entire region as well. Snow totals did vary quite a bit from the hardest hit areas to other parts of the Eastern Ontario region, but regardless of snow totals, it was a blizzard for everyone.
Wind gusts were reaching around 60-80km/h for the entire storm. That ended up causing whiteout conditions, as snow that was already on the ground was blowing around and ripping across the roads. There were some very significant snow drifts, some of them being 3 to 4 feet deep on the shoulders of roads, obviously making driving conditions during February 15th and 16th to be some of the most treacherous in recent memory. The plows that clear our roads even got pulled off the roads due to being in their trucks for too long and needing a rest, which is completely understandable. They couldn’t keep up anyway, it all came down too fast!
The peak of this Blizzard from about 12:00pm to 4:00pm on February 16th was absolutely insane, and one that I will never personally forget. Snow was accumulating so rapidly, about 5-8cm per hour during that time frame in Winchester, which combined with the wind made it pretty unforgettable. Looking out the window during that time, you couldn’t really believe how fast everything happened.
With the wind making the snow drift and pile up really high in spots and leaving parts of the yard nearly bare, it was really hard to get an accurate measurement of truly how much snow ended up falling in Winchester at the end of the storm. My best guess, just based on visuals and occasional measurements throughout the storm, is that about 40-50cm fell in Winchester and North Dundas when all was said and done with this storm.
There wasn’t a single issue with this storm. It all went according to the forecast, which was 35-55cm (at least that’s what my forecast was). It was just pure madness for basically the entire event. A storm of that caliber is really only a once every 10-15 year event, with the last true Blizzard happening in 2008, which I vividly remember as a kid at the time. There’s been a couple of near 50cm storms since 2008, one 51cm storm in 2016, and one 47cm storm in 2022, but those didn’t have the wind factor like this one. The February 15th and 16th storms really formed a “once every 15-20 year” event.
Now, it’s quiet for the foreseeable future. No blizzards, no significant snow events. Which in reality is good, we’ve got nowhere to put more snow!