Canada: The Iceman Cometh

Real winter came to western Canada last week in the blowiest, snowiest, coldest storm since record-keeping began in 1884. It laid a heavy white hand on the Rockies, then roared down across the prairies. It snapped power and telephone lines, blotted out roads, buried autos, stalled snowplows, isolated towns, made kids happy by closing schools. In Edmonton, where a new record for mid-November warmth (60°) had just been set, the storm shoved temperatures down to 24° below zero.

Temperatures skidded to 25° below at Lethbridge, 23° below at Medicine Hat, 34° below at Penhold, Alberta. Snow fell 5 ft. deep in eastern British Columbia. At Nelson, B.C., plows were trapped in towering drifts. Some 15,000 residents of the Crow’s Nest Pass area in the Rockies were isolated for days when snow drifted 12 ft. deep. Coal mines had to shut down. Towns ran short of coal and some were almost out of food.

Eight miles west of Pincher Creek, Alberta, which had 36 in. of snow, 40 people spent a shivery night in a snowbound bus. In Cardston, Alberta, Mrs. Andrew Fulton took a worried look at snow-clogged roads, telephoned her husband in Lethbridge and said she hoped he would try to get home by Christmas.