161 Centimetres of Snow & Counting!

I have lived in Canada my entire life.  I know to expect lots of snow, it’s Canada after all, we get snow.  But 161 centimetres in nine days… and counting, now that’s ridiculous.

I live in the Maritimes, not with Santa at the North Pole!

There is a reason I titled this post, 161 Centimetres of Snow & Counting.  Yes, you guessed it.  Today, we are expecting to receive an additional 25 – 40 centimeters of snow.  That will bring the 12 day total to between 186 and 201 centimetres!  Any way you “shovel” it, that is a lot of snow!

I live in the suburbs of our neighbouring city of Saint John in New Brunswick.  Not sure if you have ever visited Saint John, which is Canada’s oldest incorporated city, but the uptown (yes uptown, not downtown…lol) is a maze of narrow streets and very old buildings.

So, you can imagine what 161 centimetres of snow, coupled with narrow streets and mainly curbside parking has down to the uptown city core.  Because of abandoned and parked vehicles, coupled with the sheer quantity of snowfall, plows cannot access many streets and others are too narrow for emergency vehicles to use.  Unless something was done, the situation would only get worse as more snow is slated to fall today.

On a few occasions in the past few days, fire and police vehicles have been unable to gain access to many roadways. The situation is so dangerous, that the city made an unprecedented move and declared a local state of emergency on this past Monday night and has asked the province and neighbouring communities for help with snow removal.

For the next seven days, until the snowy mess has been cleaned up, ALL vehicles are banned from parking in the uptown area.

Wondering what 161 centimetres of snow looks like?  Here are some images to give you a bit of an idea.

The morning of the big event!  “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning…”.

We are well into the belly of the beast!  Talk about white out conditions!

The aftermath. Huge mounds of snow are everywhere.

That is a lot of snow!

Shoveling a path to our side door.

I can’t help but wonder if I tempted fate with this sign…

 {Some of the images you see are courtesy of my sister Kathy over at Oak Lawn Images.  Thanks Kathy!}

Do you get snow where you live?

What is the largest single snowfall that you recall?