Whatever happened to …

… 100 year storms?

I’ll be honest; I could do with a storm like we’ve had recently every 100 years! But, that’s not the way it works – here’s a good description.

Around here, we’ve had three or four weather broadcasts where the forecaster has declared that we’ve had a 100 year storm. We’ve certainly had some big storms this summer. I guess they get classified that way.

Cleanup on the soy bean field

The one this week caught my eye this morning while out for a dog walk. About a week ago, this was a soy bean field ready for harvest. The harvest happened and the beans stay in the harvester and the dried stems and branches come out the back. Normally, they would just sit there and get ploughed under. Not when a 100 year storm comes along though. During the rain, this would have been a stream of water going across the field to drain into the culvert in the bottom right corner of the picture. Now, we’re looking at the aftermath and all the fluff from the soy beans is at the bottom of what would have been the stream of water.

There are advantages to a heavy rainfall. Over the summer, I’ve accumulated quite a collection of bugs on the front of my car and the windshield. Most of them are gone now! For the most part, we’re safe from big storms but not completely immune. Here are some top storms from Ontario.

For a Sunday, your thoughts?

• did your part of the province get hit with part of the 100 year storm this week?
• was it defined as a 100 year storm by your local weather expert?
• we don’t normally think of Ontario as being hit by violent storms but a really strong hurricane hit Toronto and places north in the mid 1950s. Do you know what hurricane it was?
• this summer, the west coast of Ontario, particularly Huron, Bruce, and Grey counties got hit hard with rain – but not as hard as Goderich a few years ago? What happened then?
• what was the biggest storm to ever hit your community?
• it’s a necessary evil, but as a secondary school teacher, I always hated fire and tornado drills. Have you done yours yet? Has anything changed in the days of COVID?

I’d be interested in your stormy thoughts on this post. Please share in the comments below.

This is part of a regular Sunday morning series. They’re all collected here and I’m always looking for new ideas. Please reach out and let me know if you have an idea.

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