52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 51 Prompt - Winter

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 51

Prompt – Winter

Among the photos of Bill's Grandfather and Grandmother Jahnke are several black and white photographs of what appears to be taken in the aftermath of a significant snowstorm. In fact, Arthur Jahnke mentioned in his oral history that the snowstorm of 1947 was the worst Saskatchewan ever had.

I searched the Saskatchewan newspapers of the time and there on January 14, 1947 on the front page, the headline “Storm Plugs Saskatchewan Roads.

Saskatchewan is no stranger to cold, snowy and blizzard like weather. This particular storm was epic. It begun mid January, 1947 and was an intense 10 day blizzard in the middle of an early and stormy winter already going on.

 

 

 Fido seems perturbed about the snow around his dog house.  

Below is Clara Jahnke standing in front of their smoke house.

 

 

On Dec 15 2014, 67 years after the event, Jackie Campbell wrote this about the 1947 prairie storm:

 

“On January 15, 1947, the front page of the Regina Leader-Post read: “Province Just One Big Snowdrift,” with a story that detailed continuous blizzards, buried trains, and even towns from Winnipeg to Calgary. The snow started in December and hardly ceased, with blizzards that kept hitting every couple of days. On February 3, Regina set a North American record when temperatures reached negative 60 degrees Celsius. All highways in and out of the capital were blocked for 10 days, supplies in and out slowed, and people reportedly began traveling from their house to their shed via snow tunnel. Some rural roads and railways in Saskatchewan remained closed until spring.”

Apparently farmers had to cut holes in the roofs of their barns to feed the cattle and to get in and out to milk them. Food and coal supplies were scarce because no one was moving in the plugged up roads and railways. Cities closed down to ration the already scarce commodity of coal. Even the power plants rationed their power to conserve their supply.

In the Jan 15^th 1947 Leader-Post this was part of the article telling of their winter woes:

 

Archival photos of the aftermath of the winter storm of 1947.

I am writing this on a wintery day. 20 to 40 cms. of snow fell on Calgary overnight and into this morning.  Neighbors have been helping neighbors dig out from the blanket of snow. That is what people do on the prairies!

Wendy