February 18 - 19 plus of 2004
Snow? What Snow?


February 18, 2004
It was a beautiful day as I stepped up into my Jeep Cherokee and turned the key to start its engine. As I did I smiled knowing that this beautiful clear day with its mild temperature meant that I would not have to wait for the vehicle to warm up. After starting the car I backed into the street and again smiled thinking that this winter the temperatures stayed mild and I only had to engage the four wheel drive once compared to the numerous times the previous year. Yes all was good with the world and I was a happy with the knowledge that spring was just around the corner. The winter seemed to pass us by this year.

I drove to the stop sign, which is about 300 feet from my house. Still happy and blissful I turned on the radio to hear my favourite oldies station playing the sixties, seventies and eights. As I pulled away from the stop sign the morning news came on which started with the weather. However, this was more than just your everyday run-of-the-mill forecast. This time the report was preceded by a heavy snowfall warning. They announce 40 to 50 cm. How could this be? All you had to do was look outside at the big blue sky and those yards without a bit of snow on their lawns to know that this was not going to happen.

In Nova Scotia we expect the weather department to forecast the worst and to see nothing. It is very hard to get excited about such news. So I decided that I would not get to worried about this event. Usually a forecast of 40cm in the Halifax area would translate into an actual snowfall of 10 to 15 cm. I was betting that the snowfall would hit Fredericton, Moncton and the northern tip of Cape Breton (suckers).

All day the buzz around the office was the storm. Most people agreed that the forecasted amount was a little high and the bulk of the storm would pass us by. On my way home that day the roads were clear, the sky was blue and not a single flake had hit the ground. Then later that night I looked out the window at about 11:00pm on my way to bed and thought that it would be impossible to get that amount of snow before morning. Hardly a snowflake had been seen all day. So I went to bed safe in my false sense of security.

I woke early in the morning without even a second thought being paid to the gloom-and-doom report of a winter storm. As I looked out the window I realized they were wrong. Imagine 40cm of snow. I was now looking out the window at more than 70cm of snow in just 8 hours. Then over the rest of the day we got another 25cm of snow.


February 19, 2004
Everything outside was covered with snow. Actually covered with 95.5cm of snow. I realized as I looked out the window that I would not be moving for the day or the day after. After all was said and done it was three days before I could move the car but since everything else was closed it was five days before I needed to go anywhere.

By the afternoon of the first day the province imposed a State-of-emergency. During the two to three day shut down the city also imposed a curfew, which forced people to say off the streets and sidewalks to help in the clearing of snow. While people went back to work on Monday many streets were still down to one lane and would stay that way for almost a week in some areas.

The snow was so thick that it could not be moved with just a conventional snowplow. A number of huge snow blower type vehicles had to be brought into the Halifax area. The snow had to be blown into trucks and moved out of the area. The biggest problem was finding a place to put all the snow. While we are now more environmentally aware, today more then ever, the only reasonable solution was the harbour.

For about the next two weeks there were several times when the weather bureau called for a number of additional snowfalls. As is usual with the weather in Halifax these storms did not materialize and we received little to no additional snow during the clean-up period.

I did not get many pictures of the storm. The problem was that snow is a difficult thing to capture. With the hurricane you could see the damage and you could reference the scale of the damage with the surrounding items like cars and houses. However, with snow, everything is just white.