Winter isn’t like it used to be, or so I’ve been led to believe. My whole life I’ve heard people talk about ‘old fashioned winters’ with a sort of nostalgia that I just can’t muster for snow and cold.

Besides, if they’re nostalgic for the kind of ‘old-fashioned winter’ St. John’s experienced in February 1921, well, that’s best left in the past anyway.

That kind of winter doesn’t need to make a habit of showing up — one snowmageddon a lifetime is plenty.

Newfoundland Snowstorm

On February 8, 1921 St. John’s was in the grip a wicked multi-day snow storm — blizzard conditions buried the city and fierce wind whipped the snow into drifts tall enough to bury houses. The Battery neighbourhood would face the brunt of the storm. The wind was so strong two house literally blew apart.

At about 11pm, during the brunt of the storm, two more houses were destroyed when a precarious snowdrift cascaded down the rocky hillside. The avalanche carried the houses with it, sending debris everywhere. A chimney from one house came to land inside another. One of the houses was owned by Alfred Wells. Wells, hearing a rumbling feared there would be a snow slide. He had no sooner warned his wife when the house was struck. The roof collapsed pinning him. Despite suffering broken ribs, he managed to free himself and make a path out of the debris before returning to free his wife and infant daughter.

Miraculously, there were no fatalities.

As bad as that was, the people of the city couldn’t know worse was yet to come.

Petty Harbour Avalanche

Early in the morning on February 16th, 1921 a major avalanche occurred in nearby Petty Harbour. 100ft of snow plummeted from the cliffs above the village and, as bad luck would have it, through a wooden flume used in the power generating plant. Pieces of the flume were carried more than 300ft away and, ultimately, 75ft of the structure was destroyed.

The Petty Harbour flume provided electricity to St. John’s. The city was plunged into blackness, or it would have been, had the avalanche not occurred in the morning.

As it was, many people, didn’t realize the power was out until later in the day and their electric lights didn’t work. It was a different time, indeed!

With no power, local newspapers couldn’t publish and details of the black out — and subsequent avalanche that happened during it — were recorded days later.

Deadly Battery Avalanche

By Friday, February 18th there had been another avalanche. This time snow had cascaded down Signal Hill, killing a man.

A Mr. Delahunty was found ‘a couple hundred feet down the Signal Hill’ beneath 10ft of snow. He suffocated and, according to The Evening Telegram, “His hold on a dinner pail was not relaxed when death over took him.’

By February 19th, the citizens were worried. The prospect of warmer temperatures brought with them concerns that the, already unstable, snowpack might shift and cause more avalanches.

Given the happenings of the preceding week, the residents of the Upper and Lower Battery busied themselves with removing as much snow as they possibly could from the area.

Newfoundland Avalanches

I’m not aware of any more avalanches connected to the February 1921 storm but that’s hardly the end of the avalanche story in St. John’s or Newfoundland.

The Battery suffered recorded avalanches in 1959, 1960, 1987 and 2007.

Outside of St. John’s avalanches have been reported in Fogo (2008), Griquet (1962) and Trinity (1873), among many others. On top of that, I’m sure there are many, many more in the back country and unsettled areas of the province.

The Newfoundland & Labrador Department of Industry, Energy and Technology keeps a record of significant avalanches in the province, in some cases with stories of the events. There have been a surprising number of fatalities. It’s definitely worth browsing if, for no other reason than to remind yourself avalanches do happen here and they can be quite serious.

You can learn more about avalanche safety at Avalanche Canada and, for the next six-weeks you can get weekend avalanche forecasts for the Gros Morne area.