Looking Back on Canada's Costliest Winter Disaster: The Ice Storm of January 1998

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A downed hydro pylon in Quebec following the ice storm in January 1998, courtesy of CBC News.

As Canadians rang in the New Year in January 1998, millions were unaware that in only a few days, they’d be caught in the middle of the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. This is a record that stood for over 18 years, until the Fort McMurray fire of 2016. Nevertheless, it remains the most expensive winter disaster Canada has ever seen.

A 40,000km² area that covered Eastern Ontario and Upstate New York, up the St Lawrence Valley through Montreal, into the Eastern Townships of Quebec and across Maine into New Brunswick was coated in up to 100mm of ice that fell as freezing rain from the 5th until the 10th of January 1998. Light freezing rain was even experienced in Waterloo Region, to the west of Toronto and extended as far east as Western Nova Scotia. It’s important to note that this wasn’t a single storm, but rather a series of three smaller storms that produced freezing rain and ice pellets over an almost week-long period.

The Christmas Break in December 1997 was cold and snowy across much of Southern Ontario and Quebec so it was refreshing when New Year’s Day brought mild temperatures and sunshine to the region. However, a concerning weather pattern was shaping up.

The surface chart from January 7th, 1998 showing the positions of the high and low pressure, areas of precipitations (shaded in darker grey) and the temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit, courtesy of the National Weather Service.

In the coming days, a strong high pressure area settled over Northern Quebec, which forced cold Arctic air southwards, while multiple low pressure systems from the south funnelled warm, moist air northwards. When the two air masses collided, the warm air rose above the cold air and then when the rain fell from the warm air mass, it froze on contact with surfaces at ground-level where the air was much colder.

This is what typically occurs in freezing rain events, but what made this different was the persistent flow of warm, moist air straight from the Gulf of Mexico continuing over several days, turning this into a prolonged event.

Temperature Profiles and the formation of different precipitation types.

The moist Gulf air arrived first, on January 4th, and brought mild temperatures and light rain to most of the impacted region. The next day, the Arctic air moved in and settled below the warmer air mass, bringing surface temperatures back below freezing and resulting in the transition from rain to freezing rain.

The high pressure continued to build over Northern Quebec throughout the following days, which maintained the flow of Arctic air, while the moist Gulf air surged northward in three distinct rounds of precipitation. According to Environment Canada, these three waves were: from 6:00pm on January 5th to 8:00am on January 6th, from 6:00pm on January 7th to 8:00am on January 8th, and from the morning of January 8th until the morning of January 9th.

Overall, an average of 50-70mm of freezing rain fell across the entire region. However, an area later called the “Triangle of Darkness”, between the towns of Saint-Hyacinthe, Granby, and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, was hit the hardest, with more than 100mm of ice accretion.

Total Ice Accretion amounts from the January 1998 Ice Storm, courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Map of the total Ice Accretion from the January 1998 Ice Storm, with a Focus on Eastern Ontario and Southern Quebec, Courtesy of Hydro Quebec.

It didn’t take long for the effects of the ice buildup to be felt. Transportation quickly came to a halt as roads and sidewalks became skating rinks and vehicles were completely encased in ice.

After 10-20mm of freezing rain from the first round of precipitation, tree branches were already bending under the weight of the ice and as more freezing rain fell, the branches broke and entire trees toppled. Residents reported that the continuous sounds of ice-covered trees and branches breaking and falling was akin to gunshots. No definitive number was ever established, but it is estimated that millions of trees fell as a result of this storm.

It was also early on in the event that the strain on the power grid was felt and it only got worse as the freezing rain continued. Transmission lines sagged with the extra weight and short circuits caused by ground wires sagging and touching live wires tripped switches. Fasteners responsible for holding these lines were unable to handle the extra weight from all of the ice and snapped, while entire hydro poles and large towers eventually collapsed.

On top of all of this, transformers were damaged and caught fire, leading to further destruction of the hydro distribution system. Overall, 1,000 hydro pylons crumpled and at least 30,000 hydro poles were destroyed, plunging over 4 million people in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick into darkness.

A montreal street covered in ice from the January 1998 ice storm, courtesy of Hydro Quebec.

While most people who were impacted by the ice storm were in urban areas, two groups in particular were significantly impacted in rural regions.

The stretch of the country hit by the ice storm was home to roughly 25% of all dairy cows in Canada and farmers encountered considerable challenges with the loss of power. Many cows got sick when it became difficult to feed them, milk them, and keep them warm.

With the lack of power at processing plants, over 10 million litres of milk, worth roughly $5 million, had to be dumped. Hydro Quebec reports that it was able to provide generators to many cattle farmers in the province, but unfortunately an estimated 300,000 farm animals across the entire region died in the cold.

Quebec’s maple syrup industry also took a massive hit with the ice storm. More than 20% of syrup-producing trees were damaged or destroyed as branches fell or large pieces of the trees splintered off, and equipment collapsed under the weight of the ice. Some syrup producers had their entire sugar bushes destroyed and while trees and the industry have mostly recovered, some scars still remain.

A convoy of troops deployed from Petawawa en Route to aid victims of the ice storm, taken January 9th, 1998, Courtesy of Veterans Affairs Canada.

On January 7th, at the peak of the ice storm, the Provincial Governments of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick appealed to the Federal Government for assistance. The next day, 15,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces were deployed from 200 different units from across the country as part of Operation Recuperation, making this this largest peacetime deployment of troops in Canadian history.

Troops worked with hydro companies to help restore power, cleared tree limbs and other debris, evacuated residents, and provided shelter, food and medical care to victims. The Operation eventually concluded on February 28th, 1998.

Due to the sheer level of damage across such a large area, the cleanup of debris and restoration of power was not something that was going to occur overnight. Temperatures plummeted following the ice storm to -20°C, so staying warm was the number one concern in the aftermath.

Many people were able to stay with family and friends who still had power, but emergency shelters were set up and available for those with nowhere else to go. Approximately 600,000 people were temporarily displaced from their homes while crews worked to restore power.

Thankfully, hydro crews from across the country and the United States came to the aid of those in the disaster area. The power was restored to many people in urban areas after a few days, but efforts took longer in rural communities, with roughly 700,000 people still without power three weeks after the storm.

The ice storm was a real testament to the sense of community as well as the welcoming and giving nature of Canadians. Many people came together to help clean up and provide food and shelter to those in need. Despite all this, the storm resulted in 945 injuries and 35 people sadly lost their lives.

On top of the human cost, the storm had a very large financial cost. The incredible amount of damage caused by this storm was estimated to have cost insurers $1.38 billion. Furthermore, entire cities were shut down and 2.6 million people in Ontario and Quebec, consisting of close to a fifth of the Canadian workforce, unable to get to work. The loss of productivity was over $1 billion and when added to insured damages and the over $2 billion it cost to repair utilities, the overall financial cost of the storm is estimated at $5.4 billion.

Further Reading:

https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/lessons-learned-from-the-ice-storm-of-1998/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ice-storm-1998-1.4469977

https://www.hydroquebec.com/ice-storm-1998/

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ice-storm-1998

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/caf-operations/service-in-canada/ice-storm

https://www.weather.gov/btv/25th-Anniversary-of-the-Devastating-1998-Ice-Storm-in-the-Northeast

"The Legend Lives On" With the 49th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald

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Photo of the Edmund Fitzgerald taken in 1975, courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

Today we remember the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the loss of her 29 crew members in 1975. Many Canadians and Americans are familiar with this now infamous event thanks to a very popular song by Gordon Lightfoot from 1976, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The ship sank 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, just outside of Whitefish Bay, an area that is sadly full of shipwrecks. To this day, there has been no official cause behind the wreck, but the weather was very likely a factor.

The tracks of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the nearby Arthur M. Anderson, Courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Lake Superior is known for its intense November storms, known as gales or witches, and one such storm moved through the region on November 9th and 10th of 1975, when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.

The Edmund Fitzgerald departed from Superior, Wisconsin at about 2:30pm on November 9th and was quickly joined by the Arthur M. Anderson, which had departed out of Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Captains of the two ships were aware of an incoming storm and opted to take the safer northern route across Lake Superior to their destinations. The Edmund Fitzgerald took the lead and the Arthur M. Anderson followed at a distance of 10 to 15 miles.

The National Weather Service issued a gale warning at 7pm on November 9th, which was then upgraded to a storm warning in the early morning hours of November 10th. By the early afternoon, winds were gusting at 50 knots (93 km/h) and waves were 3.5 to 5 metres (12 to 16 feet) tall, but these were conditions that the Captains could handle.

The conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the afternoon and at 3:30pm, Captain McSorley of the Edmund Fitzgerald radioed the Arthur M. Anderson to report minor damage to the ship along with a list (a tilt). He asked the other ship to stay close until they got to Whitefish Bay, at the eastern end of Lake Superior, and he would slow down so they could follow closer. Captain Cooper of the Arthur M. Anderson agreed and the two ships continued on their journey.

Reports from the Arthur M. Anderson give us the best insight to the conditions the two ships faced heading into the evening. At approximately 5:20pm, Captain Cooper reported sustained winds of 58 knots (107 km/h) and gusts of 70 knots (130 km/h) along with waves of 5.5 to 7.5 metres (18 to 25 feet). Then, at about 6:55pm, the crew felt a “bump” and the ship lurched due to a gigantic wave crashing into the ship from behind, forcing the bow under water. Just as the ship recovered, a second wave hit. Captain Cooper later said that he watched those two waves head towards the Edmund Fitzgerald ahead of them and he believed that those two waves sank her.

The Arthur M. Anderson made its final contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald at 7:10pm to confirm their position. They were having trouble tracking the lead ship because the waves were so high that they were interfering with radar. The ship kept disappearing and reappearing on radar, but at 7:15pm, it disappeared for the last time. The Arthur M. Anderson tried to contact the Edmund Fitzgerald once again at 7:22pm, but there was no answer. The Edmund Fitzgerald was not seen again until May 20th, 1976, 163 metres (535 feet) below the surface of the lake.

Modelled wave heights and directions on lake superior at 7pm, November 10th, 1975. The location of the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck is marked by the red plus, Courtesy of the National Weather Service.

In 2006, a study re-examined the November 1975 storm using modern computer modelling in order to determine wind strength and wave heights at the time of the sinking. According to these models, it’s likely that the waves were at least 7.5 metres (25 feet) tall driven by sustained winds over 45 knots (83 km/h). Unfortunately, the worst conditions from this storm occurred exactly when and where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.

Three months after the discovery of the doomed ship, Gordon Lightfoot released his hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which has forever memorialized the ship into the hearts and minds of Canadians and Americans alike. The anniversary of the sinking is still honoured every year at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. In the ceremony, the recovered bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald is rung 29 times, for each crew member lost, and a 30th time for all others who have been lost to the Great Lakes.

Further Reading:

Hultquist, T.R., Dutter, M.R. and Schwab, D.J. (2006). Reexamination of the 9–10 November 1975 “Edmund Fitzgerald” Storm Using Today's Technology. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 87(5), 607-622. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-87-5-607

https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/

https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/the-fateful-journey/

https://www.ssedmundfitzgerald.org/storm-and-voyage

https://www.weather.gov/mqt/fitz_fitz

Toronto’s Storm of the Century: Remembering Hurricane Hazel 70 Years Later

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Overhead view of Raymore drive in Toronto following hurricane hazel, courtesy of Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

It was on this day 70 years ago, in 1954, that the now infamous Hurricane Hazel hit Southern Ontario and caused catastrophic damage to Toronto. It is considered the area’s worst natural disaster and has shaped development for years to come. The storm produced winds up to 124km/h and dumped over 200mm of rain in just 24 hours; left 81 people dead and over 4000 families homeless, 1868 of those families in Toronto; and caused over $135 million in damages in Ontario ($1.5 billion by today’s standards). Hazel changed the way conservation authorities operate across Ontario and those impacts are still felt to this day.

Hurricane Hazel's Path, October 14-15, 1954, Courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Hazel was first identified on October 5, 1954 by a Hurricane Hunters aircraft from Puerto Rico which located it just east of the island nation of Grenada in the West Indies. The plane estimated that the storm was already a Category 2 hurricane with winds estimated at 160km/h, but this value was more recently revised to 105km/h, making Hazel a Tropical Storm at the time, during reanalysis of former hurricane seasons by NOAA. Hazel intensified following the Hurricane Hunters mission and it made its first landfall over Grenada on the evening of the 5th as a Category 1 hurricane with winds estimated at 120km/h.

From there, Hazel tracked west-northwestward off the northern coast of Venezuela for the next few days, gaining strength along the way. Late on October 9th, Hazel gained Major Hurricane status with winds estimated at 195km/h. The next day, the storm made a sharp turn and started churning northeastward, where it eventually made two separate landfalls on Haiti’s west coast, initially over the Tiberon Peninsula as a Category 3 with winds estimated at 195km/h in the pre-dawn hours on the 12th and then as a Category 2 with estimated winds of 160km/h later that same evening over the northern peninsula. Hurricane Hazel killed up to 1000 people in Haiti and devastated the economy, destroying 40% of the nation’s coffee trees and 50% of the cacao crop.

Following its second landfall in Haiti, Hurricane Hazel curled northwestward and made its fourth total landfall in Inagua, an island in the Bahamas, less than 18 hours later on the morning of the 13th. The storm maintained its Category 2 strength between the two landfall occurrences, hitting the Bahamas with winds estimated at 160km/h.

Beyond the Bahamas, Hazel gained speed and reintensified, becoming a Category 4 hurricane on the evening of October 14th. Just before noon on October 15th, Hazel made its fifth and final landfall near the border of North Carolina and South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 215km/h and gusts up to 240km/h. Hazel quickly transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone, but it maintained hurricane-force winds as it quickly pushed through D.C., Pennsylvania, New York, and towards the Canadian border. The storm killed 95 Americans and caused over $1.5 billion of damage by today’s standards.

Surface Chart from 8:3pm ET showing the location of Hazel over Southern Ontario, Courtesy of the National Weather Service.

As Hazel made its way northward through the States, Canadian authorities began issuing warnings to the general public, but most people didn’t know how to prepare for a hurricane. The storm began to weaken over the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia and meteorologists expected it to dissipate, however the opposite happened. Instead, Hazel encountered a low-pressure system over western New York and intensified just before it crossed into the Niagara Peninsula.

Hurricane Hazel was a post-tropical Category 1 storm that brought severe wind gusts of up to 124km/h to a large portion of Southern Ontario on October 15th, but the winds were not the main concern from the storm. By the evening rush hour, the winds began to die down, but according to Chief Meteorologist Brian Turnbull, the worst of the storm was yet to come. The days leading up to Hazel’s arrival were quite wet so when the heavy rainfall began in the late afternoon, it didn’t take long for flooding to begin. Significant deforestation and development on the saturated flood plains across Toronto could not contain the over 200mm of rain that fell in 24 hours which resulted in many rivers overtopping their banks, with water levels rising by up to 8 metres. The Humber River, in particular, became a deadly torrent through the city, washing away roads, bridges, and entire homes. Overall, the storm dumped 181.6 billion litres of rain on the City of Toronto.

In total, 81 people lost their lives from Hurricane Hazel, mostly in the west end of Toronto. Across Southern Ontario, approximately 4000 families lost their homes, 1868 of which were in Toronto. Raymore Drive was hit particularly hard with 14 homes being washed away, killing 35 people. Fortunately, the death toll could have been much worse if not for the heroics displayed by many police officers, firefighters, and ordinary citizens who worked tirelessly trying to save those who became stranded. Sadly, five firefighters lost their lives when trying to rescue trapped motorists.

The effects of Hurricane Hazel were felt beyond Toronto. Significant flooding was experienced in communities as far west as London and north to Georgian Bay as the storm progressed northwards to James Bay, where it eventually dissipated.

Members of the Harbour Patrol Rescue a man from the Don River, courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Hazel, many changes were made to conservation authorities across Ontario, especially in the Greater Toronto Area.

An intensive plan was put in place by conservation authorities, along with both the municipal and provincial governments, for flood control and water conservation in order to limit loss of life and property from future extreme weather events. As part of this plan, flood control facilities were inspected, upgraded, or built alongside additional dams and reservoirs to control and monitor water levels. A flood forecasting and warning system was also a large component to the plan.

An amendment was made to the Conservation Authorities Act that allowed individual conservation authorities to obtain and control vulnerable areas to be used for conservation and recreation. As a result, many homes were cleared from low-lying areas and greenbelts were created within watersheds. This included the expropriation of most remaining properties on Raymore Drive by the Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority which was turned into parkland, now called Raymore Park.

As we look back on the anniversary of this tragic event, we want to remember those that were lost and all of the efforts that have been put in place since to prepare for future extreme weather events. The City of Toronto has seen many flooding events since Hurricane Hazel, and it will continue to do so for many year. However, major floods in 2013 and more recently in 2024 show that more work still needs to be done.

The G. Ross Lord Dam, One of the Many Flood Control Measures in Place Across Toronto, Courtesy of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

Sources:

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/hurdat2.html

https://www.heritage-matters.ca/articles/hurricane-hazel-50-years-later

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/pages/programs/provincial-plaque-program/provincial-plaque-background-papers/hurricane-hazel

https://www.hurricanehazel.ca/ssi/evolution_flood_control.shtml

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto-feature-hurricane-hazel

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hurricane-hazel

https://www.trca.ca/news/hurricane-hazel-70-years/

https://www.weather.gov/mhx/Oct151954EventReview