Spring storm no surprise to Gander residents
GANDER, N.L. – With each throw of the shovel, Natasha Ram couldn’t help but wonder what happened to spring.
As she cleared the driveway on May 24, her daughter Selena Barnes was enjoying a snow day.
Having lived in Gander since 2009, Ram has seen her share of central Newfoundland spring storms.
“So it’s more sad than surprising,” she said with a laugh, as earlier in May, she had been painting and working on her garden.
“But we live in Newfoundland and Labrador so you expect this kind of weather.”
Roy Martin had also embraced spring.
The Gander resident had to take his snow blower out of storage to clear the heavy snow.
Having spent 10 winters in Gander, he wasn’t surprised.
“We didn’t have a bad winter, so it’s not that bad,” he said.
At Gander International Airport it was business as usual.
Ed and Leanna Flood were awaiting their flight to Saskatchewan, which was reported as on time.
May 24 marked the Corner Brook couple’s 15th wedding anniversary.
“It certainly wasn’t a snowy one like this,” said Leanna. “It was a beautiful 20-degree day.”
They made the trip to Gander the day before (May 23) to beat the forecasted weather.
To keep passengers like the Floods on time required a lot of preparation on behalf of the airport staff.
Joey Hunt, field foreman at the airport, said it was two days of planning before the snow began to accumulate on the runway.
“As soon as the forecast said we were going to get (a large amount) of snow, we started gearing up, checking out all the equipment to make sure we were ready to keep the runway open,” he said.
Hunt said crews started clearing snow as soon as it started accumulating, approximately 10:30 p.m. May 23, and crews continued to work around the clock.
As of 10 a.m. today, the runway was still open and a crew of seven were working cleanup.
The perfect storm
SaltWire Network’s resident meteorologist, Cindy Day, said that while snow in May in Newfoundland is hardly rare, the conditions for this particular storm were not so common.
The system that brought the snow developed off the Eastern seaboard of the United States, but then as it moved up the coast, hit cold air coming from the North, right over central Newfoundland.
"The cold meeting that moisture doesn't happen often," she said.
Indeed, until today, the record for snowfall on May 24 was six centimetres in 1965. Results were still coming in, but Day said the latest measurements indicated 33 centimetres at the airport in Gander, with between 20 and 30 centimetres on average for the area.
While there may be a few showers mixed with flurries on Friday and into Saturday, Day said the system had kept moving east, past the Avalon peninsula.
Some schools re-opening
While many schools in central were closed for the morning, some are now opening for the afternoon, while others remain closed for the day.
Newfoundland and Labrador English School District's individual school updates are available here.
