January 1998 North American ice storm

Coordinates: 45°07′N 73°40′W / 45.11°N 73.67°W / 45.11; -73.67
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ice Storm of 1998
An example of the damage to trees
TypeExtratropical cyclone
Ice storm
Winter storm
FormedJanuary 4, 1998
DissipatedJanuary 10, 1998
Maximum snowfall
or ice accretion		around 5 inches (130 mm) (freezing rain)
FatalitiesCanada: 28[1]
United States: 16 (plus 12 in floods in Southern States with same system)[2]
Damage$5–7 billion (2005 US$)
Power outages4 million at peak
Areas affectedEastern Ontario including Ottawa
Southern Quebec including Montreal
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Northern New York
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
(lesser effects in Central New York, western Ontario, and southern New England; rain/flooding in the northern Appalachian Mountains)

The North American Ice Storm of 1998 (also known as the Great Ice Storm of 1998 or the January Ice Storm) was a massive combination of five smaller successive

Canadian Forces personnel deployed, 12,000 in Quebec and 4,000 in Ontario at the height of the crisis.[3][4]
: 16 

Background

cold air damming happens with an east to northeasterly flow in the St. Lawrence (the predominant wind direction in the St. Lawrence Valley is usually either northeast or southwest) and the Ottawa Valley and along the axis of the Appalachian Mountains
.

Snow is produced at upper levels in such a

supercooled. When that rain touches the ground or any other cold surface in the cold air below, the droplets freeze on contact, creating accumulations of ice. If the cold air layer is too thick, the droplets refreeze before hitting the ground and form ice pellets, which are usually less hazardous.[4]
: 22 

The

Power lines and other equipment are built according to tough standards, since large accumulation events have happened many times prior to 1998.[5] In Quebec, standards were reinforced after a storm left 30 millimetres (1.2 in) to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) of ice in Montreal in 1961.[6]

Prior to the 1998 storm, the last major ice storm to hit Montreal (1961) deposited around 30 to 60 millimetres (1.2 to 2.4 in) of ice. However, the 1998 storm left deposits twice as thick, downing power lines all over the region, damaging most of the trees in Montreal, and leaving streets covered in a thick, impassable layer of ice.[6]

Meteorological synopsis

The ice storm affected a large part of eastern Ontario, southwest Quebec, and New York state. This map shows the accumulation of freezing rain in those areas.

On January 4, 1998, an upper level low system stalled over the

high pressure area
was anchored over the Atlantic Ocean, which prevented these systems from moving further to the east, as most winter storms do when they pass over the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region.

A series of surface low pressure systems passed in this atmospheric circulation between January 5 and January 10, 1998. For more than 80 hours, steady freezing rain and drizzle fell over an area of several thousand square miles of Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, Brockville, and Kingston, an extensive area in southern Quebec, northern New York, and northern New England (including parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine).

Farther to the south, southern Ontario and western New York, as well as much of the Appalachian region from

Canadian Maritimes mostly received heavy snow. Exacerbating the problem was a steep drop in temperature that immediately followed the passage of the freezing rain, which combined with the extreme power outages led to numerous indirect deaths due to carbon monoxide
poisoning from generators and other sources as people desperately tried to remain warm.

Impact

Two inches (50 mm) of ice on a twig, illustrating the impact.

Many power lines broke and over 1,000

Environment Canada.[8]
Twelve more deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional damage were caused by the flooding farther south from the same storm system.

The bridges and tunnels linking Montreal with the South Shore were closed because of concerns about weight tolerances or ice chunks falling from the superstructures. All but one power linkage to the island of Montreal were down for several days,[9] disabling both of the city's water pumping stations.[10] When power was restored, parts of Montreal remained impassable due to large chunks of ice falling from rooftops, which endangered pedestrians and motorists; large portions of Old Montreal and the downtown core were cordoned off by police due to the dangers of large sheets of ice falling from buildings.

The area south of Montreal (

Saint-Hyacinthe, Granby and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu was nicknamed the triangle noir ("dark or black triangle") by the French-language media,[11] and the Triangle of Darkness in English media,[9]
for the total lack of electricity for weeks.

Cities such as

Coteau-du-Lac, south and west of Montreal respectively. A third locomotive was moved to Boucherville, but never actually put to use.[12]

The loss of electrical power also greatly affected pig and cattle farmers, as they could no longer provide water or adequate ventilation to their barns full of livestock, leading to the death of many animals. Many barns also collapsed under the weight of the ice, killing the animals trapped inside.[13]

Millions of trees were brought down by the weight of ice around the affected areas.[14] With many trees damaged or felled by the heavy ice, the maple syrup and orchard regions suffered heavy blows and massive losses in the storm; Quebec's maple sugar industry, the largest in the world, was devastated.[14] As another example, 5,000 trees in Montreal's Mount Royal Park had to be cut, 80% (140,000) of the rest were damaged to different degrees and had to be trimmed, a large number severely.[14]

Critically, about 1,000 steel

electrical pylons[15] and 35,000 wooden utility poles were pulled over by the weight of the ice, further damaging the power supply and hampering the return of electricity. Teams were brought in from places such as Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia
, along with teams from the United States and the Canadian Forces, to help restore power to affected homes in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

Roughly 700,000 of

Maine National Guard was mobilized, and hundreds of utility crews from as far away as North Carolina arrived to help.[16] With 8 deaths, this became the deadliest natural disaster in Maine history.[17]

Three weeks after the end of the ice storm, there were still thousands of people without electricity. In Quebec alone, 150,000 people were without electricity as of January 28.[18] Estimates of material damage reached around $2 billion Canadian for Quebec alone. Overall estimates are around $4–6 billion US$ for all the areas affected.[19] Damage to the power grid was so severe that major rebuilding, rather than repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken.[20]

Operation Recuperation

Ottawa, Ontario
, a region affected by the 1998 North American Ice Storm.

With many roads impassable due to heavy snowfall or fallen trees, broken power lines and coated with a heavy layer of ice, emergency vehicles could hardly move. On January 7, the provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec requested aid from the Canadian Forces (CF), and Operation Recuperation began on January 8. Over 15,000 troops were deployed. It was the largest deployment of troops ever to serve on Canadian soil in response to a natural disaster since the Manitoba floods in 1997, where 14,000 troops were deployed, and the largest operational deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War.[3][4]

CF members from about 200 units across Canada helped provincial and municipal workers clear roads, rescue people and animals trapped by storm wreckage, evacuate the sick, shelter and feed about 100,000 people frozen out of their homes, and ensure that farmers had the generators and fuel required to keep their operations going.

peace officers in the most devastated areas around Montreal.[citation needed
]

At the height of this crisis, Operation Recuperation involved 15,784 deployed personnel (including 3,740 Reservists) from all three CF commands: 10,550 in Quebec, 4,850 in Ontario and 384 in New Brunswick. In addition, 6,200 CF members and

DND employees working at their regular jobs provided the logistical support required to sustain the operation.[3]

Long-term effects

Project Ice Storm (Projet Verglas) was created to monitor the long-term effect of prenatal stress. Researchers at McGill University set up the project in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, finding 178 families to participate; some of the women were still pregnant at the start of the investigation. "The goal of the current study is to understand the long-term effects of the prenatal exposure to stress on the physical growth and functioning, cognitive development, and behaviour of the Project Ice Storm children by studying developmental trajectories through age 13.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lecomte, Eugene L.; Pang, Alan W.; Russell, James W. (1998). La tempête de verglas de 1998 (PDF) (in French). IPSC. p. 37. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  2. ^ National Climatic Data Center (April 12, 1999). "Eastern U.S. Flooding and Ice Storm". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on September 22, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2009..
  3. ^ a b c "Operation RECUPERATION". Past Operations. Canada Department of National Defense. 2005. Archived from the original on May 29, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7710-6100-4
    .
  5. ^ a b David Phillips (December 18, 2002). "A closer look at a rare situation". 1998 Ice Storm. Meteorological Service of Canada. Archived from the original on February 9, 2006. Retrieved February 29, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link).
  6. ^
    Environment Canada. Archived from the original
    on July 19, 2006. Retrieved March 3, 2008.
  7. ^ Burlington, Vermont National Weather Service (2008). "10th Anniversary of the Devastating 1998 Ice Storm in the Northeast" (PDF). NOAA. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  8. Environment Canada
    . 2000. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
  9. ^ a b CBC News, Icestorm 10th anniversary, January 2008
  10. ^ "The Ice Storm of '98". The Gazette. January 28, 1998. pp. S. 13.
  11. ^ "The Ice Storm of 1998". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Archives. 2005. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
  12. ^ "ALCo/MLW locos". CN Lines Special Interest Group. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
  13. ^ Beshiri, Roland (2005). "How farmers weathered Ice Storm '98". Statistics Canada. Archived from the original on March 8, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
  14. ^ a b c McCready, Jim (2004). "Ice Storm 1998: Lessons learned" (PDF). Eastern Ontario Model Forest. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2006. Retrieved September 10, 2006.
  15. ^ Claude Turcotte (January 5, 2008). "L'après-crise aura coûté deux milliards". Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  16. ^ Sharp, David (January 7, 2008). "Devastating ice storm of '98 remembered". The Boston Globe.
  17. ^ "These Natural Disasters Can Occur in Maine! Are You Prepared?". Crisis Equipped. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  18. ^ Canadian Press (January 28, 1998). "150,000 in Quebec still lack electricity". The Globe and Mail. p. A3.
  19. ^ "NCDC: Eastern U.S. Flooding and Ice Storm". noaa.gov. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  20. ^ The Weather Network News: Taken by storm Archived June 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ "Project Ice Storm: Continuing Effects of Prenatal Stress on Children's Physical, Cognitive and Behavioural Development in Adolescence". Project Ice Storm. McGill University. Retrieved May 6, 2016.

External links

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