The power of nature

The unusual and severe ice storm that affected eastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec on April 5^th brought a mix of ice pellets, freezing rain, thunderstorms, and high winds over several hours. These were followed by heavy rainfalls and thick fog. Later, as the temperature rose, big chunks of ice pelted down noisily from the trees.

These events were predicted by the weather services, but the outcomes could not be. As a result of Mother Nature’s fury, over two hundred thousand households in Ottawa were without electricity and there was significant damage to trees, power lines and property. In Quebec, more than a million households lost power. The response to the emergency was impressive.

We witnessed a remarkable mobilization of all available resources to deal with the disaster. Numerous public buildings that still had electricity or had a generator, were opened across the region to welcome individuals and families to give them a chance to warm up and recharge their phones. Hot drinks and meals were prepared and distributed. Local elected representatives were surveying the situation and sharing information in real time.

Emergency crews rapidly got to work removing broken trees and branches off streets and vehicles. Maintenance crews were dispatched to repair damaged equipment and reconnect wires. They all worked non-stop to bring things back to normal. Hydro services were providing updates on the progress they were making by way of a real time outage map. Thankfully, only three people died during the storm and its aftermath.

The current ice storm is small beans compared to so many natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires, droughts experienced around the world. Nevertheless, it gives us plenty to think about.

Freezing rain as a phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied in North America to conclude that it is directly affected by the warming of the arctic and sub-arctic regions or changes in any other objective climatic measures. However, scientists seem to agree that we can expect more atypical variations in temperature and precipitation in future.

Along the same lines, our region saw the lowest number of hours of sunshine this winter compared to the last eighty winters. More cloud cover means more precipitation. Mother nature can be expected to keep us on our toes. We will have to adapt and be creative.