Ottawa Ski Club - the Gatineau Valley Historical Society

52 OTTAWA SKI CLUB
THE WEATHERMAN REPORTS
by F. W. BAKER
There is a current express•ion: "The Centrai Experimental Farm. It was
weather 0 is here· to stay", and we an easy winter in any man's langu-.
blithely add these words, "and so is age. It was easy in temperature, and
the weatherman". That's the way it the distribution of. the comparatively
is folks, you have the weather with
you always and so why not a weatherman.
normal snowfall was very favourable.
E.';rery month was warmer than nortial
It is just as logical and essenmal
by two to four degre€s and the
as the ham in a ham sandwich.
On the other side of the ledg€r,
for a moment your humble servant
snowfall of 84.35 inches was somewhat
lighter than the 62-year average
for Ottawa of 86.58 inches.
would like to take time out to expreBs
The introduction to winter came on
a feeling ·of pleasure and pride in the
the morning of November 4th wh_en
privilege of being given space in the
we got up to see the fields whitened
ever-popular Ottawa Ski. Club Year under a 2.75 inch w.owfall. Fairly
Book.
heavy rainfall followed. during the
In previous issues we have attempted
to as~·ociate the weather with ski­
quietly faded
day and "winter's" first attempt just
away.
ing conditions, but experience has
served to show the folly of such a
policy. It simply becomes too great
a burden on the sensitive shoulders
of a weatherman to be a buffer between
the vagaries of the elements
and the fine requirements of the
skiing masE·es. Let me hasten to say
it will never fail to be a great pleasure
to pen the days that covered
those hills with happy humanity, and
vice versa will be with conscious
regTet.
No doubt the only persons who may
be t empted to read these lines will
be skiers, so from this point I will
attempt to parade the past winter
before the readers' eyes accordingly.
I am heartily sure that many of you
certainly would not relish a repeat
performance of any of our recent
winters. To the skiing world, however,
I make this observation: how
m any of you are conscious of t he
great privilege you enjoy in the fact
that your great outdoors sport gives
you a winter to enjoy as well as
summer?
Now to glance back at our past
winter from the statistics of the
Odds and ends of s·now carne during
the remainder of November but always
accompanied by rain, so that
the tempera ture had its way with
the snow.
Winter made its first worthwhile
attempt on December 8th with a
two-inch snowfall and a 12 degrees
above zero temperature to make it
seasonable. The lOth and 11th made
it definitely in favour of winter with
3,50 inches more snow, and night
temperature hovering between 10
degrees and zero on three successive
nights. From this point it gained
momentum. From the 16th of December
to the 24th, every day had snriwfal!
in some quantity. There was a
perfect snowy s etting for Christmas
day, which was cloudy and cold, with
the high point for the day being one
degree below zero. The 26th was
colder, with a day temperature seven
degr ee £• below zero. The following
day recorded a 28 below zero and so
everybody had had a good introdLtC·
tion to winter.
By the end -of December a good
solid foot of snow was on the fields