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magazine / ma98
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March/April 1998 issue |
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Bayou storm in a Canadian winter
FLOODS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Winter
grassfires on the Canadian Prairies. And in Eastern Canada, a
brutal six-day ice storm that left millions freezing in the dark.
The prime suspect in all these unusual weather events is a vast
pool of warm Pacific water called El Niño. Every four
or five years, shifts in wind and ocean currents leave the huge
pool stationary off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. The heat
and moisture it releases affect weather patterns in various parts
of the world. It is thought to have caused a split in the jet
stream, the high-speed, high-elevation current that blows from
west to east across the middle of North America. For five days
in early January, the stream's southern component veered south
and picked up warm, moist air around the Gulf of Mexico, then
turned north again to Eastern Canada. There, a stagnant cold
air mass forced the warm, wet air to rise, precipitating rain
— which cooled as it fell through the cold air and froze wherever
it landed. It was a bayou storm as one meteorologist put it,
in an Eastern Canadian winter.
Click map to enlarge
As the storm progressed ...
In the wake of the storm
Quebec: 1,393,000 customers
without power, some for more than four weeks (includes homes,
businesses, institutions and others); 1,000 hydro towers toppled;
24,000 hydro poles downed
Ontario:
232,000 customers without power; 300 towers toppled or
damaged
New Brunswick:28,000
customers without power
Nova Scotia: 20,000 customers
without power
Maine: 315,000 customers
without power; state of emergency declared for whole state
New Hampshire: 67,586
customers without power; state of emergency in nine of 10 counties
New York: 130,000 customers
without power; state of emergency in 10 of 62 counties
Vermont: 33,200 customers
without power; state of emergency in six of 14 counties
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