Century 21 on Main Street The Weather with Connor

with April 5, which will now be forever known in my head as The Ice Storm of 2023. Everything happened right on schedule. An early morning arrival into the Ottawa Valley, and then a mid morning arrival for the rest of the Eastern Ontario region.

poured for the entire time, and the ice ended up accumulating 10mm more onto the tree branches, for a grand total of 25mm of ice at my home in Winchester.

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another week of The Weather with Connor. This week, I just wanted to talk about one thing. That big destructive ice storm back in the first week of April that wreaked havoc across the region. I’d like to talk about that ice storm on April 5 and the days leading up to it, knowing it was coming as a forecaster.

This storm was absolutely spectacular, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. For basically the entire ice portion of the storm, which was the morning and a little bit of the early afternoon, it was a continuous thunderstorm. Thunder-ice, actually. I have never heard a thunderstorm during a major freezing rain event like that. I was totally astounded.

It’s always nice to see a new business open up and to be able to attend their open house. This past weekend, Loralee Carruthers opened her office doors at 490 Main Street, in Winchester. She had a grand opening, and invited friends, businesses, acquaintances, and family. To welcome her into town, Dan Pettigrew of Foodland donated a lovely cake for the event. Thank you Dan, as always, for your generosity.

Loralee offers a full service office, providing all the contacts needed to help you make your sale, or purchase of a home, go as smoothly as possible.

Drop in and visit her, you will always be greeted with a warm smile and, of course, her dog, Sophia, will also be there to provide some dog cuddling for all you animal lovers.

For at least five days ahead of that storm, most (if not all) weather models had that ice storm happening. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, mostly because it’s not uncommon whatsoever for models to show a big ice event multiple days in advance, only for it to not happen at all. Besides that, though, everyone involved in the weather knew a storm was coming that week, even if it was just going to be regular rain.

April 3 then comes around. That’s a Monday, and two days from the ice storm arriving. At this point, models are still locked and loaded, showing a major ice storm impacting the region before a switch to rain. For models to be showing the same outputs and timing for ice, I started to sound the alarm in my brain that this is probably going to happen. It was at this time I started making Facebook posts well in advance of the storm, so people could prepare themselves for later in the week.

Tuesday, April 4, was the day before the ice storm would come in. This was the day I posted my big forecast for the event, stating that a damaging ice storm is on the way. I knew this wouldn’t be a fun storm for a lot of people, and that tree damage and power outages were all but guaranteed. Fun fact, that forecast eventually was seen by just shy of 45,000 people.

And so here we go

Of course, during a thunderstorm, precipitation is coming down at an extremely heavy rate. Usually it’d be rain, but in this cause it was the ice, which made the ice accumulate on trees incredibly fast. That’s another thing I’ve never seen in my life, how fast that ice accretion happened. In only three hours, from 8:30am-11:30am, there was already about 15mm of ice on tree branches. 15mm in itself would be a bad ice storm, but this only happened in three hours, with multiple hours left in the storm.

Around the Winchester area, freezing rain lasted until 3:00 or 3:30pm that afternoon. It

From about 1:30pm onward into the evening, all you could hear outside around town was trees snapping. There were full trees, big tree branches, really just any branches on trees coming down from the heavy weight of the ice. My backyard of trees looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Also, Winchester was very lucky not to lose power during this whole situation, which many of us were thankful for because of sump pump reasons.

Make no mistake, this was absolutely the worst ice storm in Eastern Ontario since the Ice Storm of 1998. I’m not comparing the two, 1998 was obviously worse with 100mm of freezing rain in a lot of the region, I’m just saying this was the worst ice storm since. It’s definitely the worst one of my life, being that I wasn’t even born yet in 1998..

An incredible late season event. And what happened the week after? It was summer outside. 30 degrees on Thursday, April 13. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Spring can be wild sometimes!

The Food Corner

By Paul Cormier, Salamanders of Kemptville

Ok, so I think I’m on a dessert spree : must be the spring weather. We put four tables out on our Salamanders patio since the weather started being nice and we have folks waiting in line for them. This week’s recipe is Baked Bananas à l’Orange, a fancy name for a very simple recipe. It’s also an easy way to get some potassium into your system.

Baked Bananas à l’Orange

Ingredients

1 banana for each serving, so let’s go with 6 for this recipe

¼ cup of orange juice

¼ cup of Triple Sec or Cointreau (orange liqueur)

1 cup of 35% cream

5 tablespoons of sugar

Another three tablespoons of orange liqueur

1/8 cup grated orange peel

Preparation

1. Heat your oven to 350F and spray a glass pan lightly with canola oil

2. Peel the bananas, slice them lengthwise and place them in the pan

3. Drizzle with the orange juice and orange liqueur

4. Cover with foil and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until the bananas soften

5. Meanwhile, beat the cream until stiff with the sugar and additional liqueur and refrigerate

6. When ready to serve, place one warm banana (2 halves) per serving on a dessert plate

7. Drizzle any leftover juice over them, top with the whipped cream and trim with orange peel

A scoop of vanilla ice cream also works well with this recipe and dark coffee or some Earl Grey tea would highlight the flavours. Mind you, sipping more of the orange liqueur is ok too…Enjoy! Cheers from pcormier@ranaprocess.com.

Supporting Cancer Care at WDMH Happy Birthday to Us!

submitted by Jane Adams

ACROSS

At the cheque presentation are (l-r): WDMH Manager of Direct Mail and Events, Justine Plummer, Doug Nugent, Vice Chair, Prostate Cancer Support Ottawa, Tom Clapp from Dare to Flash a ‘Stache and Al Carl, Chair, Prostate Cancer Support Ottawa.

submitted by Jane Adams

The latest donation from the amazing Dare to Flash a ‘Stache (DTFAS) team is in. Recently, Tom Clapp from the DTFAS team and Doug Nugent and Al Carr from Prostate Cancer Support Ottawa stopped by Winchester District Memorial Hospital to present a cheque for $5,000 to the WDMH Foundation. The money will be used to support the Cancer Care Navigator Fund. WDMH’s Cancer Care Navigator, Sarah, works with patients to identify their needs and to help them develop a plan to meet their specific goals. She can answer questions about care, provide education, and link to local community

Funds were donated to the DTFAS team from the Prostate Cancer Support Ottawa. The team also presented a cheque for $10,000 to The Ottawa Hospital to support cancer research.

“Thank you to the amazing DTFAS team for your commitment to supporting the Cancer Care Navigator Fund,” says Justine Plummer, Manager of Direct Mail & Events at the WDMH Foundation. “Your support over so many years is so appreciated.”

Forty-five years from April 5, Dundas Manor opened its doors. The Manor was established, owned, and operated by the Alguire family for more than 32 years. In a special section of the paper, the Winchester Press reported that the new home would “bring the county to the forefront in nursing care for the elderly”, noting that “the $1 million complex offers the best in patient care, with ultra-modern kitchen and laundry facilities, and spacious living, activities and craft rooms”.

The official opening ceremony was held on June 23rd (so the weather was nicer!). Osie Villeneuve, MPP for Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, led the official party, along with the Hon. Douglas Wiseman and dignitaries from the Ontario Nursing Home Association, Winchester Chamber of Commerce, and others. Public tours were also held.

“It must have been an exciting day in Winchester!” notes Administrator Susan Poirier. “Every day since, we've worked hard to make each day special at Dundas Manor, inspiring happiness and joy for our residents. Now, we can’t wait to share the news of the official opening of the new Dundas Manor! We are getting closer with the start of construction this fall. What a great way to celebrate our birthday!”