Hi Pierre,
You and Enkil are both correct to say that the mighty snowstorm of March 4th, 1971 was more powerful than that of March 8th, 2008, but both were certainly monsters nevertheless. Since this Winter storm ended up being the biggest of its kind since November, I thought it would be interesting to compare the features of both. So, here we go:
March 4th, 1971
Total snow accumulations: 47.0 cm
Conditions: Snow and blowing snow
Strongest sustained wind: 74 km/h
Duration of strongest sustained winds (between 61-74 km/h): ~4 hours
Strongest achieved wind gust: 108 km/h
Storm longevity: ~28 hours (started at 5:00 p.m of March 3rd)
Lowest air pressure: 97.29 kiloPascals (kPa)
March 8th, 2008
Total snow accumulations: 32.8 cm
Conditions: Snow, blowing snow+ice pellets
Strongest sustained wind: 72 km/h
Duration of strongest sustained winds (between 63-72km/h): ~4 hours
Strongest achieved wind gust: 93 km/h
Storm longevity: ~40 hours (part 1 and part 2)
Lowest air pressure: 98.15 kiloPascals (kPa)
Comparatively, both storms had identical features, and both were fairly ubiquitous. First, the maximum sustained winds or the strongest wind gusts were not massively far apart - the difference between the strongest
gusts was 15 km/h, and only a mere 2 km/h difference between the strongest
sustained winds. Also note that the longevity of the strongest sustained winds between both storms were about equal in time span.
The duration of both storms were different, mainly in part because this recent storm had two components to it, and so it naturally prolonged the storm for several more hours. However, the snow total gathered from the first part was a great deal smaller, at least in our region, than that of its bigger brother since the snow was mostly light and was taking breaks up till 11:00 a.m of March 8th. Finally, the air pressure was roughly the same, but each was VERY low, indicative as to how intense both storms really were. Generally, the lower the air/barometric pressure, the stronger the storm. Judging from the identical air pressure values, that leads me to believe that we were in close proximity to the center of the low in 1971 as well.
Concluding, the storm of March 8th, 2008 was equally quite vicious and paralyzing, especially considering the amount of snow we in Montreal already had prior to it. Even though we picked up ~33 cm of snow in Montreal, that doesn't necessarily mean the storm wasn't capable of crossing that 40 cm threshold. Let's not forget that Ottawa did in fact receive 52 cm of snow (this was 5 cm more than the 47 we picked up on March 4th, 1971), while Niagara Falls collected just 1 cm less, making both areas easily crippled. Reasons behind our slightly less accumulations were simply because of the interference of ice pellets, either strickly falling that way or mixed in with snow occasionally - we had at least four hours (not consecutively) of mixing. Interestingly, Ottawa had picked up 17 cm of snow from part 1 of the storm, compared to our 7 cm, so they were already well ahead 10+cm from us after this initial part. In the long run, this is certainly a storm to remember in Canadian history!
But you're right, Pierre. Winters in the 90's and as far back as who knows when were much more fearsome one after the other!
Edit: As for the record, we're still liable to picking up 37.2 cm (a little bit less than that after today's accumulations) to beat 1970-1971. As far as that goes, I'm watching another possible Winter storm just in time for later next week, but I'll keep a close eye on it until then.
Edit 2: I did forget to mention yet another possible Winter storm (a Colorado Low) that has a slight chance of hitting Ontario and Quebec later Saturday into Sunday. However, at this point the models suggest that it will stay South of the border, giving us a few flurries and then zooming into the Maritimes - there's a good chance it will stay this path. If the jetstream changes its pattern and migrates further North, then that changes everything. Gotta keep an eye on this one in addition to the one I mentioned briefly in my first edit.
Trav.
