2014 Sea Ice Storm

A spring blizzard  moved through quickly March 26, leaving behind sunny skies, either bare ground or snow banks and sea ice on exposed coasts after storm to hurricane force winds.  As in February 2013, Swallow Tail took the brunt of the storm but the quick movement of the storm resulted in some sea ice frozen across the peninsula but not nearly as thick as in 2013. 

Power was out on the point for 24 hours after the salt spray tripped a breaker on the pole (over 36 hours in 2013).  Two of four webcams no longer work after the wind, salt spray and power outages took their toll.  The antenna for the WiFi for the ferry blew off the boathouse, laden down with ice.  The poor flag that was flown for the first time only two weeks ago is now a tattered shred, despite reinforcing the outer edge.

Here are some photos:

Ice covered northern side of the boat house.

WiFi antenna blown off the boathouse, covered in ice.

Thickness of ice on lighthouse.

Frozen sea ice on bell house attached to lighthouse.  Ice froze horizontally as the spray was blown across the building wall.  Taken by Sarah McDonald.

Ice covered railings leading to bronze fog bell.

Ice covered rope safety lines along foot path.

Ice and snow on bronze fog bell.

Ice covered wooden bench facing away from freezing  salt spray.

Ice covered wooden bench facing freezing salt spray.

Ice covered fog horn.

North side, roof and chimmeys of keepers house covered in ice.  A couple of shingles lifted on the roof replaced in 2011.

Swallow Tail peninsula covered in sea ice.

Ice covered iron eye ring and vegetation.

Icy sign post with Sarah taking photos from below.

Photo taken by Sarah McDonald of sign post.

Frozen sea ice on the railings for the steps.

Ice covered trees near the Sawpit.  No wonder they don't grow branches facing the water.

Windows in the keepers house covered in ice on the outside.

Tattered flag after flying for only two weeks.

Web cameras on Welcome Centre - only two still are working after wind and power outages.

Freezing Spray Warning - 1952

I was forwarded from Canadian Coast Guard files, a photo of the bronze fog bell, bell house and lighthouse at Swallow Tail covered in thick ice from a storm in 1952.  Looks much like the photos we took in February 2013 but instead of the fog bell, the fog horn was completely iced in!  Nothing like a muffler of ice.

Icy rime covering fog bell in February 1952 - Canadian Coast Guard photo.

Freezing Spray Warning - Blizzard 2013

If you live along a coast or are a boater you are probably familiar with the weather term - freezing spray - which is usually associated with vessels.  When the air temperature is cold and water hits vessels because of the spray from waves, the water freezing on the vessel and can built up to an extent that it can compromise the stability of the vessel.  The warnings are real and if the conditions continue for any length of time, a substantial amount of ice can accumulate. But you may not have thought about the effects it can have on land when high winds and waves combine to carry the ocean spray onto land.  The same ice build up can occur but is usually one sided depending on the direction of the wind.

On February 9 two major storms combined into one, as one storm moved in from the west and the other up the eastern seaboard, culminating in a storm with hurricane characteristics.  The sustained winds and high tides caused much havoc on Grand Manan, shredding tarps at a construction site, destroying a hangar at the airport, raising water levels beyond the normal high tide, bringing drift wood and rocks up onto land, breaking trees limbs and toppling trees, wreaking havoc with the power lines, and leaving places in the face of the nor'easter, like Swallow Tail, coated in frozen salty brine and looking more like the aftermath of an ice storm, rather than a snow storm.

The following photos were taken the next two days, when the weather had cleared to bright sunshine and calmer seas.

John's bench overlooking the Swallow Tail peninsula

Railing on the deck at the Welcome Centre overlooking the Swallow Tail peninsula

Frozen Swallow Tail peninsula.  Freezing spray coated everything from the north and east, bending trees with the weight of the ice.

Frozen, salty stairs and railings.

Bent tree covered in salty ice at the head of the stairs

Ice coating the railing on the foot bridge.

Ice almost completely covering the railing on the foot bridge on the northern side.

Frozen spray on the safety railing at the head of the stairs.  The railing is red.

Frozen spin drift in the Sawpit.

Looking down into the Sawpit, filled with frozen spary and styrofoam from a floating weir that is breaking up from the extreme wave action.

Frozen spray on the mafic dike of the Sawpit.

Trees bending under the weight of the freezing spray.

Trees covered in freezing spray along the foot path.

Frozen bench, trees and trail.

Balls of frozen spray and an ice coated bench.

Fog bell deck covered in ice.

Layers of ice coating the rope hand rail along the foot path.

Heavily weighted rope rail and ice balls created by freezing spray that completely crossed the Swallow Tail peninsula from one side to the other.

Where did the windows go?  Ice covered north side of the keepers house.

Ice covered eastern side of the keepers house.  Note the difference with the southern, almost ice freeze, side.

Ice covered eastern side of the keepers house and deck.

Ice covered rocks and vegetation.

Ice covered slope from freezing spray.

Can you find the tree under the ice?

Heavily ice-coated  spruce trees.

Don't believe the ice is from sea spray?  Seaweed frozen into the ice near the lighthouse.

Fog horn muffled by a thick coating of ice.

Bell house and lighthouse covered in icy rime.  The spray from the waves extended more than halfway up the tower.  A snow plow driver looking down at the lighthouse during the storm said that the tower completely disappeared from view several times as the waves and spray crashed over the point.  

New version of the wooden lobster-trap bench - ice bench!  Good thing the bench is bolted to the rocks or it probably would have ended up elsewhere.

 It is difficult to gauge the amount of snow that fell.  The wind created huge snowbanks or completely moved the snow elsewhere, leaving bare ground.  Many on the island who experienced the Groundhog Gale in 1976 commented that this storm had the same ferocity with sustained high winds for two days, combined with extremely high tides and storm surge.