Remembering The Storm Of The Century

The Main

In light of yesterday’s dump that hit Montreal, we wanted to take a look back at what is often referred to as “The Storm of The Century”. The winter of 1970/71 was a pretty tough one, with snow accumulation reaching the 2.8 meter mark by February, and the worst was yet to come. On March 4th, with winds gusting upwards of 110 KM/hr, the city got 43.2 cm of snow — paralyzing the highways and city streets, causing thousands of blackouts and stranding just as many throughout the city.

Granted, this record snowfall was broken in December 2012 when 45.6 cm fell, but considering the infrastructure and technology improvements which have taken place in those 41 years, we’ll let the 1971 storm retain the title.

all photos from Archive of Montreal