…dumps of snow, that is. After my last post, well — that was nothing! Yesterday and today we got hit with a “doozy” of a storm, and more snow and rain than we had way back in the old days (er, I mean: three days earlier). And the wind was crazy. At one point I looked out this morning and the rain was being picked up off the railing of my terrace and shooting upward into the air! There are still more than 100,000 without power…the very heavy wet snow and strong winds took down a lot of trees and power lines.

Still, we got it easy compared to what they had in the States. In New York City they had 200mm of precipitation — the previous record for that day was 50mm, a record set 101 years before. On Sunday we also set a record, though with a “measly” 30mm of precipitation,which probably included about 20cm of snow.

For any “out-of-countriers” from non-Northern nations think me ridiculous for me to say we had 30mm of precip. which included 20cm of snow… Well, a general approximation is that you can convert mm to cm when you’re talking about snow as opposed to rain. That is, if you had a snowfall of 20cm and “melted it down”, it would be equivalent to about 20mm of rain (or 2cm). The rain yesterday was very heavy and wet, so maybe the factor was less than 10, but it’s a rough rule.

The previous record in Montreal for the most snow on the ground on April 15 was set in 1971, when there was still 5cm on the ground at the end of the day. Of course, that year it was still the “winter snow” (it was an incredibly snowy winter). They didn’t get rid of the last of it until around April 20. This year wasn’t particularly snowy, and we’d already gotten rid of what we had by the end of March… but with these recent storms we still set a record with our 7cm still on the ground yesterday.

What’s with all this weather news? Well, I am Canadian after all, and it’s our favourite subject. I’m surprised I don’t have a “Weather” category in my blog… I just “calls ‘em as I sees ‘em” — and what I “sees” outside my window these days is miserable and worthy of discussion!

In other news, did you know that National Fair Trade Week(s) is (are) coming up (May 1-15…)? I am already getting into the swing of things — a new grocery store opened up near me, one which only stocks bio, organic, fair trade foods. So you can spend a bit more (well, a lot more, in some cases) and get a euphoric buzz from the incredible lightness of your wallet. Or maybe it’s from the hemp-seed oil you used in that stir-fry.

Seriously, though, why does it have to be two weeks? Many other important causes only get a single day to toot their horn! Plus, it sounds like you’ve made a mistake (”Excuse me, did you say week-s? Plural?”). On the other hand, if we have “International Year of the …”, then why not: “National Fortnight of the…”?

Hope you’ve enjoyed: “Local Quarter-Hour of the Blog” (hopefully less, unless you’re a slow reader).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 1h06 and is filed under Montreal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.