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"Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice " by Paul Arculus Sketches of Scugog is a historical column written by local resident and historian Paul Arculus and published in the Port Perry Star each month. The month of January, 1999 is now in the record books. The snow and its effects dominated the media for almost the entire month. For the first two and a half weeks of the month, snow made the headlines or at least the front page of the area newspapers every single day. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman took every advantage to be on television to comment on the city's plight. Early in the month he went on tele- vision to tell the world that the January 2 snow- fall was the heaviest single snowfall in the city's history. A few days later he was on television ~ claiming that Toronto had just had the heaviest two-week showfall in its history, and promptly called in the army to deal with the mid-month cri- sis. Almost every person over fifty can recall how in their childhood, they climbed the snow banks and touched the telephone lines. "There was far more snow in the winter of 197?" they say, "But I guess Mel must be right, after all, he IS the mayor." In order to resolve the issue, I contacted Environment Canada to obtain the actual statis- tics. It turns out that the record books show that the oldtimers were right and that Mayor Mel was wrong, horribly wrong, on both his statements. The highest single day snowfall is indeed within th- experiences of many older citizens. It hap- pened on December 11, 1944 - 48 cm in a single day. The heaviest two day snowfall also happened at that time, December 11 and 12, 1944. Many readers will remember that event. Over 57 centimeters fell on those two days, again sig- nificantly more than Mayor Mel's event. Although the December 11, 1944 snowfall is the biggest on record for this part of the country, the total accumulations in the winters of the nine- teenth century would really give Mayor Mel a cause for concern. + Environment Canada assured me that the 84 cm. which fell in the two week period in mid month was indeed the heaviest two week fall this a Ht a A couple of Epsom residents walk east along Reach Rd. following a storm in Large snowfalls not all that uncommon over the past 100 years Following a storm in February 1960, snow was piled wire-high along some of the roads around Port Perry. Here kids play on top of snow winged-back by ploughs along Reader's hill. century but it was in fifth place when stacked up against the snowfalls of the nineteenth century. The heaviest two week snowfall on record took place over an eleven day period from February 11 to 21 in 1846, and that snowfall was 115 cm; almost a third more than Mayor Mel's problem! The first newspaper in this region was the Ontario Observer which was first printed in 1857, so I could not find out how our local residents reacted in 1846. However, the second and third highest snowfalls took place in 1876. In February and March of that year there were snowfalls of 107 cm., in a two week period, one each month! Again, far greater than Toronto's 1999 problem. Throughout the entire two-month period in 1876, there is absolutely no reference to the snow at all. The people of Prince Albert and Port Perry merely went about their business. After all, it was winter, and they all expected to " have a lot of snow. January 1867 had an 87 cm snowfall in a two week period. That's three centimeters more than this year, and fourth in the record books. What way to begin Confederation year! But again; no reference to the snow in the news- 'paper. The com- munity merely went about its business. The monthly Cattle Fair went on in Manchester with- out a twitch. The Observer comment- ed that the fair had been good and over 450 cattle changed March 1971. it took a bulldozer to plough a path through the village that winter. hands. Not one church service was canceled, local council and school board meetings reported, as usual, every .member in attendance. The monthly meeting of the Masons saw its slate of officers for the new year installed with due ceremony, and with not one member absent. The heaviest two day snowfall on record was at Christmas in 1872; December 25 and 26. It happened without a mention in the press. Watch out Mayor Mel: there's more to come. It's only February. The heaviest total monthly snowfall on record was in March 1870. That month the Toronto area had 159 cm of snow, a third more than we had in January 1999. On Thursday, March 31 of that year the Observer gave its first ever mention of the weather. The reporter quietly commented, "This section of the country has had another first class snow storm. It commenced on Saturday night and by Sunday it had made such a mess of everything that going to church was entirely out of the question; the roads were completely blocked up and the blinding snow continued to fall so thick that one could scarcely cut one's way through it.... Monday was almost a universal holi- day... and our uniformly stirring village looked somewhat melancholy in its universal white drap- ery. It is sincerely hoped that our munificent sup- ply of snow may pass away gradually." There, that's it, no further comment. No des- perate measures. By Tuesday the shops were open again, and work was completely back to nor- mal by Wednesday. Mayor Mel called in the army and tried to get the government to declare a state of emergency for his puny snowfall of 21 cm, on Jan 11, and 27 cm on Jan 13. As for his statements about his ability to handle the heaviest snowfalls on record; well, Mel never was very good at history. My thanks to B. Smith at Environment Canada for the statistics. a rT ------