January 1935 Winter Event

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Writeup on the historic winter event of January 1935:

During the later part of January, the lower Mainland and parts of Vancouver Island were hit by the worst blizzard in years, a fierce ice storm and then torrential rains. The “worst time of snow and ice in the lower mainland’s history” began on January 19, a colder day than any on that date in 26 years. Next day, a raging blizzard dropped 2 ft. (60 cm) of snow in Vancouver and up to 4 ft. (1.2 m) in Surrey on its already frozen ground. Drifts 8 ft. (2.4 m) deep were “plentiful.” On January 20, cold temperatures and snowfalls immobilized Vancouver and most of southwestern British Columbia. Vancouver recorded 17.5 in. (44.5 cm) of snow on January 20.

The “most intense (snowfall) in Vancouver’s history” paralyzed all traffic and caused schools, mills, and businesses to close. It caused the “worst traffic tie-up since 1913.” Traffic on the old Granville Street Bridge was interrupted for hours when the swing span froze while open. Following big storms on January 19 and 20, rail service on three railroads running into Vancouver was disrupted over 10 days. Floods and slides claimed the lives of at least 15 people with another three missing. The ice storm of 1935, described as the “worst storm of the century,” was far worse than previous “silver thaws” in 1912, 1917, and 1933.

According to records kept by F.B. Dill, a member of the University of British Columbia Buildings and Grounds, between January 11-18, 22 in. (55 cm) of snow fell. A snowfall of 5 in. (12.5 cm) on January 11, was the beginning of nine days of unusual cold snowy weather. On the morning of January 17, North Hatzic and Mission-Matsqui at the bridge over the Fraser River recorded temperatures of -5F (-20.6C) and –7F (-21.7C), respectively. On January 19, temperatures were recorded below 0F (-18C) in the New Westminster residential districts and in the city 3F (-16.1C). At 7:30 a.m. January 19, the temperature dropped to 2F (-16.7C). By the early morning of January 20, 18.5 in. (46.3 cm) of snow had fallen in 24 hours, breaking all records and bringing the measured total of snow since January 11 to over 40 in. (100 cm).

The cold weather was general throughout the province with temperatures in the Okanagan plunging well below 0F (-17.8C). The next day it reported the coldest weather in 26 years with a temperature of 4.3F (-15.4C) in Vancouver. According to E.B. Shearman, local Dominion meteorologist, the greatest accumulation of snow for a short period in 38 years, closed all streets to traffic. In the country, some snow piles
became solid ice.

Later on January 21, the heavy rain in Vancouver turned once more into sleet. In the Fraser Valley, “silver thaw” froze onto powerlines to a thickness of 10-in. (25 cm). By the afternoon, the crashing lines had isolated Chilliwack, already covered by 29 in. (72.5 cm) of snow. Both the CNR and CPR were unable to move and would not for nine days. No trains arrived at New Westminster since January 20.

Source: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_sa ... south1.pdf (Page 90-91)

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Writeup on the historic winter event of January 1935:

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Sections of the Interior reported tremendous snowfalls. In the Bridge River area, 3,000 people were isolated as a result of 35 mi. (56 km) of road being under 10 ft. (3 m) of snow. Princeton reported 63 in. (160cm) of snow, and Nelson 12 ft. (3.6 m) of snow and a minimum temperature of -17F (-27.2C). The rest of the Kootenays was buried under 4 ft. (1.2 m) of snow). A PGE train, caught in a slide near Pemberton, was snowbound for several days. Huge snowdrifts blocked and closed to all traffic the inter-provincial highway between Abbotsford-Chilliwack and the road between Abbotsford-Mission. All schools in Mission closed and bus service to there was suspended. On January 19, the wind, which lashed the Chilliwack and Sumas districts for several days, shifted to the Matsqui Prairie area. Following the snowstorms in the Fraser Valley, 100 loggers were marooned at the Harrison Lake camp of Green Point Logging Co. Ltd. On the morning of January 19, they received food and meat supplies by air via a Canadian Airways seaplane from Coal Harbour, Vancouver.

Sawmills along the Fraser River started to close as the river started to freeze over. At Haney, the river was already completely frozen over on January 19. Ice on the Fraser River forced many sawmills to close. Dynamite was used in futile attempts to break up the ice. The Vancouver Sun had as headline in their January 18 edition “Ice Breakers in Fraser” as headline.

On January 21, Vancouver streetcars came to a halt. That night, some 400 BCER employees shoveled snow and managed to get most of the city’s street railways open. On that same day, BCER officials requested the public to do their cooking after 6 p.m. The powerlines from two central electric power plants had collapsed, and due to snow drifts repair crews could not get to them. BCER asked residents to save power after BCER high-tension wires from the powerplants at Lake Buntzen and Stave Falls went down at 4 a.m.

Near the gypsum plant, a boom of logs consisting of 20 sections for a total of 800,000 ft.3 (22,640 m3) broke loose from its moorings. When the logs on ebb lodged themselves against the Fraser River Bridge, the structure was threatened. Later the boom broke apart.

According to CPR officials, the railway company had never encountered snow conditions like this before in the British Columbia area, especially between Yale-North Bend. At Yale, the snow was reported to be level with the top of the station. Between 8-9 ft. (2.4-2.7 m) of snow fell during a 36-hour period. On January 25, the CPR was still clearing mudslides at Hammond and at North Bend a rotary snowplow was clearing snowdrifts. On January 26, the CNR was trying to open their line to Chilliwack. Another ditcher was sent to Mount Lehman to clear the line where two days earlier a slide came down. The CPR line was blocked by slides at a number of points between Coquitlam-Mission. The PGE had already cleared 150 mi. (240 km) of their total of 347-mi. (555.2 km) network. It was hoped to reopen their line in a few days. It was also hoped to have the rail connection with Seattle open by January 28.

By noon on January 20, 23 in. (58.4 cm) of snow had fallen in New Westminster during the previous 24 hours. It caused an almost complete tie-up of transportation facilities throughout the lower Mainland. BCER streetcars were unable to operate due to the breakdown in the snow clearing equipment. All busses suspended their operations and the morning train to Chilliwack was cancelled. On January 21 in Burnaby, a slide at Kerr Road disrupted service on the Marpole line of the BCER interurban system. For a considerable distance the tracks were under several feet of mud. Coated with ice, the trolley wire’s arcing lit up the Fraser Valley with a dazzling light show.

Source: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_sa ... south1.pdf (Page 91-92)

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Writeup on the historic winter event of January 1935:

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On January 21, a quick rise in temperatures occurred. In Vancouver, for example, temperatures rose from 5F (-15C) to 43F (6.1C) the next day. On January 21, the cold snap ended with heavy snow turning into rain. Following the blizzard of January 20, heavy rain fell on January 21. By nightfall, 3.73in. (94.7 mm) of rain fell in 24 hours, breaking all records. Starting 8 p.m. on January 20, 4.15 in. (105.4 mm) of rain fell in New Westminster. For the period of 36 hours ending at 7 a.m. on January 22, New Westminster recorded 5.77 in. (146.56 mm) of rain. Between 8 p.m. on January 21-7 a.m. the next day another 1.62 in. (41.15 mm) of rain fell. It caused hundreds of basements throughout the city to flood. On January 21, New Westminster recorded 2.35 in. (59.7 mm) and 18 in. (45.7 cm) of snow. The total of 4.15 in. (105.4 mm) of precipitation made it an all-time record.

In the Lower Fraser Valley the situation was the worst. Blowing snow and sleet rapidly accumulated, downing power lines throughout the Lower Mainland and leaving Vancouver with only two out of nine power circuits Wires and trees began to fall in the first violent snowstorm. Chilliwack reported 29 in. (72.5 cm) and all power lines down. Melting snow washed out bridges and tracks. More power lines were downed by debris. Flooding forced line crews into boats to repair the damage. Though they worked feverishly under dangerous conditions, they were unable to restore service until mid-February. Electricity did not even reach the Vedder Mountain substation until early February.

The freezing rain or “silver thaw,” which started during the night of January 21-22, covered roads, telegraph and telephone wires and trees with a layer of ice. The intense ice storm, in its sweep down the Fraser Valley, struck to a point about 3 mi. (4.8 km) west of Aldergrove. From there through to Abbotsford, most apple trees were down; huge fir trees had their tops snapped off and alder and birch trees were strewn around. Many of the orchards were ruined as trees were stripped clean. It would take weeks before the telephone and BCER line crews could untangle the wires, erect new poles and restore the systems. It appeared that the ice storm was much more severe from Abbotsford east than west of the town. Travelling towards the coast, the silver thaw stopped in Surrey at Kennedy Station on the BCER. The actual damage by sleet stopped at Craig. Murdo Maclachlan of Chilliwack described the ice storm that paralysed Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley in the last week of January as follows, “Trees, powerlines and roofs crashed down; pistol and cannonlike sounds accompanied the crashing and the freed ice-sheaths. It was like a battlefield, with crashing transformers providing awesome fireworks displays.”.

On January 23, Chilliwack, Matsqui and Mission were still without power. On January 24, The British Columbian called the conditions in the Mission area as “indescribable.” It was thought that not a single tree was left standing. Poles and wires were down and strewn about the streets. Miles of telephone wires were down with the poles snapped off at the butts because of the tremendous weight of the ice, which formed on the wires. All the smaller trees were flattened to the ground and there was a continual booming as the larger trees on the hills were snapped off and sent hurtling to the ground. The streets were covered with glare ice and the wires as thick as a man’s forearm. Transit was paralysed. The streets, impassable even for pedestrians, were virtually impossible for the streetcars. When they did leave the garage, they often got stuck on ice tracks or short-circuited in flooded areas. Streetcar workers and linemen worked for days to chip ice off the tracks and restore lines. Crews quickly restored one circuit from Stave Falls; two Buntzen Lake circuits were re-energised by January 22. Next day, some local transit lines were operational and by January 25, power was restored to Vancouver.

The residents’ food supplies were running low and general conditions infinitely worse than in any previous experience of silver thaw. Due to the ice, it was impossible to use horses and most people in the district did not leave their houses for days. In Chilliwack, residents were using toboggans to transport coal and store supplies. The streets were so slippery that boards with nails driven through them were put down on the ice so pedestrians could get around. Throughout the upper Fraser Valley, conditions resembled the situation following the disastrous sleet storm in the winter of 1917-18, though then there was less snow on the ground.

In Mission, an estimated 40-50% of all the electrical house connections were torn down. On January 27 at 5 p.m., the first electricity since the storm began was restored to places were house connections were still intact. By January 28, 220 of the 287 local telephone connections were still out of order.

Many roofs caved in under tremendous weights of accumulated snow and water. In some places, 4 or 5 ft. (1.2-1.5 m) of snow was covered with a thick layer of ice. In Vancouver, the roof of the Forum sustained $70,000 damage. A number of small craft moored at Coal Harbour sank and several boat sheds collapsed under the strain of the heavy snow. The roof of K & D Service station at Dublin and 12th St. collapsed and damaged cars stored inside worth between $3,500-4,000. The Elks Garage at 129 E. Cordova St. caved in under the weight of the snow, causing some $50,000 worth of damage. In White Rock, a large building in Maple Street, housing R.E. Steed’s Bakery and a garage collapsed under the weight of the snow. F. Peter’s garage on Campbell Road also collapsed onto four cars. The roof of W.E. Taylor’s store sagged. Barns and many older homes collapsed under the heavy burdens. In Elgin, many farm buildings collapsed, including the large barn on the Lamb farm, Wm. Haddon’s machine shed, as well as a sheep shed and pigpen belonging to Stuart Stevenson. Chicken houses were also destroyed on the farms of Ernest Johnson and Harry Gerow. On Nicomen Island, several old barns on the lower road were demolished. At the Deroche end of the island, the huge new barn of Butter and Inman collapsed under the heavy snow and several head of cattle were killed.

Telegraph service was suspended to the south and east when the wires went down south of Bellingham and east of Mission. With the communication wires down, the west coast was cut off from direct contact with eastern Canada. Urgent messages could be sent via Australia on the undersea cable. It took nearly a week to get the main roads plowed so that horse-drawn sleighs could haul supplies.

Source: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_sa ... south1.pdf (Page 92-93)

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January 21 1935 Vancouver Sun Newspaper.jpeg