So Just How Much Snow Do You Actually Get in Newfoundland?

Winter 2008

My original plan was to take a walk around the Brook in late March since that seems to be the historical 'turning point' of the spring-winter transition. My friend ended up sending me those 'crazy amounts of snow' e-mail pictures in February and I was bored; so I decided to get out early and document just how much snow we had.

A month after these pictures the amount of snow started to decline, although the peak amount wasn't much greater than what you see below.

For an idea of just how much snow they get here in Corner Brook; the average yearly snowfall is 166.3 inches. Detroit averages 41.4, Denver gets 60.4, Boston is at 40.9, NYC measures 28.1 (at Central Park), Philly gets 20.8, Chicago gets 38.2, Toledo gets 36.8, Charleston (SC) gets 0.7 and Portland (Maine) is the only one that can hold its own at 70.5 inches.

By the way, that place that I went to that was north of Corner Brook (Goose Bay, Labrador - the place with the German Barracks) gets 180 inches annually.


Corner Brook is really hilly and this 'hood and my 'hood are both at the tops of hills within town; therefore we get the most snow in the city.

You wouldn't think that these hills would make that much of a difference, but there was a day where I went to work with 2 inches of snow on my car and not a one of my other coworkers and a single flake on theirs.


That being said, I don't find that it is THAT much snow. I mean it's a lot, but maybe it doesn't strike me as a huge amount because it has been a gradual increase over the winter.

Another point I want to make is shown the above picture; in that there's not too many windows here that are snowed in. People might have a view outside to a snow hill in their yard, or may have to look out the top of their windows; but for the most part there aren't too many windows completely blanketed.

One humourous exception that I can think of is my coworker, who has his office right next to the building entrance. The snow is piled in front of his window and it has slowly been rising and rising - gradually reducing his window privileges.


Another funny thing was that I was driving to work one day and they had the police constable on the radio. She was talking about how "it's that time of the year again - time to slow down by corners because many signs are no longer visible."


Lastly, they have these funny things which churn the snow and shoot it into people's yards, forming those banks on the sides of the road. When you look at the snowbanks head-on, it resembles the cross section of a slice of black forest cake; you see the fresh snow accumulation, then a layer of dirt, layer of fresh snow accumulation, layer of dirt, and so on.

Mmmmm, black forest cake.

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