You will note that holidays revolve around the shortest day of the year, the longest day of the year and so forth.
What about our coldest day of the year?
That honour goes to some day between January 18 and January 27 when the average high is -6.1 and the average low -15.2. And this frosty morning is not putting the lie to that. We propose a holiday to worship the Ice Queen. Names anybody?
Arctic Day - many are cold but few are frozen.
ReplyDeleteAh, but this morning is putting the lie to that: we are not within your suggested range, only on the eve of it!
ReplyDeleteAs always, there is a story.
ReplyDeleteThe coldest day recorded EVER in Montreal was January 14-15, 1957.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_coldest_weather_in_Montreal
And, on the evening of the 14th, while eating supper, we heard on the news on CFCF 600 or CJAD 800 radio that the large Ste. Elizabeth church was ablaze on rue de la Courcelles near St Jacques across from the Montreal Tramways car barns down in St. Henri.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Qh5Z_vBjo80C&dat=19570115&printsec=frontpage
After we were finished eating, my Father suggested we drive over to take a look.
Rather than descend the hill on St. Jacques ( St. James back then ) East from Decarie and possibly get jammed in conjestion caused by fire trucks and hoses snaking to hydrants blocking the streets in the lower quarter, we decided to park facing North on Decarie just outside the entrance to the CPR Glen roundhouse and walk down.
We could see the orange glow in the sky, indicating a large fire, down the decline to the East from Upper Lachine Road.
It was cold in the car even with the heater on full.
After parking on Decarie, we turned the corner and walked East on St. Jacques.
The wind hit us right in the face, a pillar of smoke and steam over the edge to the right, not from the fire, but from the locomotives under steam at the Turcot roundhouse behind it's long wooden fence across St. Jacques, the flames and the smoke of the fire directly ahead above the buildings beyond St. Remi.
Two white pillars reaching into the sky.
It was even COLDER facing the wind funneling up the hill.
Partway down the grade on the left the CPR Glen had a protruding curved concrete overpass-like structure extending out over the North sidewalk, this to support a turning loop where complete passenger trains could be turned end-for-end after being brought back up from Windsor Station by a switch engine.
Certain passenger cars were intended to operate in a single direction only and had to face the front of the train.
The wind just roared thru this sort-of tunnel with an open side, making it even colder and took our breaths away.
We could not face the wind, it was just too cold!
We turned around and gave our faces and lungs a rest, icicles from tears and runny noses brushed off and falling down our coats.
We turned back and tried again, the flames spiking into the sky, but, yet far too far away for warmth.
Made about another 100 feet, and had had enough.
Much too frigid to push on, and we knew we still had to come back, later.
We rushed back to the car, which too was now cold inside and out, and went back home.
The church was rebuilt in a modern style.
Times and people change, and move on.
The replacement church became empty, decayed, and was recently demolished, as were, over time. the St. Henri car barns, the Turcot roundhouse, and the CPR Glen with it's overpass over St. Jacques.
Being as January 14-15, 1957 was the coldest day ever recorded and the day of the big church fire in St. Henri, maybe the Coldest Day could be named St. Henri day?
Awesome tale. I live very close to that. Hard to believe they built a church there and demolished it 5 decades later.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the holiday could be named Skadi after the Norse Goddess of Winter.
http://www.matrifocus.com/SAM02/wheel.htm
One of my first memories of the west end was the remains of the St Elizabeth Church after the fire. Because it was during the winter, the water from the hoses froze formed a myriad of stalactites which were visible for months.
ReplyDeleteJan. 27 is my birthday so, yes, it should be a holiday. :P
ReplyDeleteVaria: St. Elizabeth:
ReplyDeleteRoof caves in at St. Henri church
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=9d4da15b-4d58-4b47-bd85-3cc7d5a17fc8&k=16391s
http://www.barraclou.com/memorial/steelizabeth/index.html
Paroisse supprimée : la paroisse Sainte Elisabeth Du Portugal a été supprimée et fusionnée, et le lieu de conservation des registres est Saint Irénée.
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/page/arr_so_fr/media/documents/pv_modif_plan_stjacques-decourcelle.pdf
http://www.imtl.org/image.php?id=7031
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prt_fn35/2409467450/
I happenned to pass on St-Jacques yesterday, and in the course of the megahospital work, the newer concrete wall that replaced “the CPR Glen had a protruding curved concrete overpass-like structure extending out over the North sidewalk” has been breached for about 100 feet, presumably to let the noria of trucks that bring down the earth dug from it to the old Turcot yard downstairs…
ReplyDelete* * *
Another notable fire/explosion in St-Henri happenned about 35 years ago when the grain elevator on St-Ambroise near the Cartier square exploded during winter. For weeks afterwards, the iced-up remains provided an eerie apocalyptic sight, and the whole thing was bulldozed the following summer and neatly tamped.
Until some 30 years later when it was dug-up to make condos. For weeks, the area reeked of fermented/rotted grain that had been sealed underground for 30 years; it is a wonder that residences were allowed to be built on such a rotten soil!!!
(As of early childhood memories, mine is when they demolished the bank on the south side of Queen-Mary road to make way for the Décarie hole).
Regarding Mr. EMDX's comment about the big bank at Queen Mary and Decarie.
ReplyDeleteHere is a photo looking North on Decarie c. 1949 from SE Corner.
http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sno22.jpg
Note the house with the balcony and the fancy turret on the right a few doors North from Queen Mary.
The Tramways' Garland Terminus has recently opened and all streetcars are now travelling North to that location.
View at Snowdon Junction looking South towards Queen Mary. The original bank is on corner to left above creme streetcar.
http://img828.imageshack.us/i/joncsnowdon.jpg/
Garland Terminus not yet built, all streetcars turning here. A BUSY place after the War with more vehicular traffic.
View from aforementioned bank after it was rebuilt after the war? looking North on Decarie. This view is from the early Sixties as streetcars are gone, June 1959, and buses now use the streetcar tracks to Garland Terminus.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/2710669505_936b5b4e63_o.png
This is the scene that would become the Decarie Expressway. The enlarged bank was a beacon visible when travelling South on Decarie from the CPR tracks above Vezina.
Older view of Snowdon Junction, looking North from SW corner.
http://www.cjecdn.qc.ca/bibliotheque/societe/12-dev/12b-a77.htm
The house on the right has TWO turrets in this view.
Snowdon Junction looking North in 1904.
http://www.stm.info/en-bref/tramways/images/S25/S259_5.jpg
Thank You.
Well...The Internet mystifies me.
ReplyDeleteBefore I post an article, I always e-mail it to myself and check that the links open smoothly in the received e-mail.
I did that with the Snowdon Junction item, and all seemed to work okay.
But, when I tried the same links copy and pasted from Coolopolis, some do not work.
A quick remedy that seems to work was to highlight in blue and copy and paste the whole article from Coolopolis onto a blank page at my e-mail account and send it to myself.
All the links then appeared to work all right once again on the received e-mail.
Sorry.
Sorry, I have had it explained to me repeatedly how to embed links in the comments but still can't remember how it's done.
ReplyDelete"Coldest day recorded EVER" is stretching it a bit. Records have been kept at Dorval only since 1941.
ReplyDeleteMcGill's records go back to 1871, and while there are were no colder temperatures than the Dorval one of -37.8, McGill shows the Jan. 14, 1957 minimum to be -30.2 .
According to the McGill records (1871-1985), there have been 27 days on which the temperature was below -30 - the coldest being -34.1 on Dec. 29, 1933. Since 1985, Dorval has reported 5 days below -30 - the last being -31.8 on Jan. 27, 1994.
Global warming, anyone?