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Snow removal: Brian Inglis uses a snowblower to clear a walking path in front of the downtown Askew’s along Lakeshore Drive on Monday, Jan. 5.
Winter storm batters the Shuswap Digging out: City residents cope with massive snowfall, schools and businesses shut down. By Barb Brouwer and Tracy hughes OBServer STAFF
like a popular 1945 song says, the weather outside was frightful… let it Snow quickly became a christmas favourite, but the storm that dumped 46 centimetres of snow in the Shuswap in less than 48 hours didn’t leave many people singing. An environment canada update at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 5 revealed that 35 centimetres of the white stuff had fallen at the Salmon Arm Airport. “And it’s still snowing,” said warning preparedness meteorologist lisa coldwells. “It’s one heck of a snow day and we ex-
pect another 10 to 15 centimetres before it is snowed out by tomorrow morning.” But as much as the snow fell, breaking records was looking iffy. environment canada uses daily measurements taken between 12 a.m. and midnight on any given day. The record for a one-day snowfall in that time frame was 33 centimetres on dec. 27, 1998. “If you’re going to be extremely technical, it’s not a record,” coldwells said, noting Salmon Arm’s extreme snow depth, a record for accumulated snow, was 87 cm measured on Jan. 24, 1993. In terms of a two-day record, this one will
This week Salmon Arm Minor Hockey product Curtis Lazar celebrates Canada’s gold medal. See A12. A few hardy souls braved the frigid waters of Shuswap Lake on Jan. 1. See images on A10.
go down in history as Salmon Arm’s fourth heaviest snowfall. environment canada files indicate 51 cm fell in a two-day period in 1918, 49 cm on Jan 8 and 9, 1969, with the all-time two-day record of 53 cm set in 1943. And you can blame winter’s onslaught on the “Pineapple express.” A surge of cold Arctic air from the Yukon that settled into the valleys was covered by a large warm air mass originating in Hawaii. “The two (air masses) are battling it out,” said coldwells Monday. “And there has been a continuous flow; that’s one of the keys for making it snow for what seems forever.” That forever snow caused havoc in the
Shuswap, closing schools and challenging travellers, city road crews and businesses. Some areas of Sunnybrae and Silver creek were without power. After initially saying schools would be open, School district #83 reversed course at 7:42 a.m. Monday and closed all schools. The news that schools in the district would be closed for a second snow day came early Monday evening. Okanagan college also cancelled classes for two days. Bc Transit was forced to suspend operations in the Shuswap on Monday, while city crews and contractors were working around See Crews on page A2
Index Opinion ....................... A6 View Point .................. A7 Life & Times ............. A10 Sports................A12-A15 Arts & Events ... A16-A17 Classifieds ....... A19-A22 Vol. 108, No. 1, 48 pages