Prior Issue (Archive)
How's The Weather?
Now and Then

The weather of Saint John and surrounds is usually described as moderate.

That description, however, even with today's advanced weather reporting can change quickly and dramatically. In Saint John and Charlotte Counties, the weather is affected by the Bay of Fundy and severe wind storms can sweep up that deep body of water in record breaking time giving New Brunswickers little or no time to prepare.

One such storm was the Groundhog Gale on February 2, 1976. An intense low pressure system, came up the Bay and caught Saint John and surrounding area unaware. Around 11:00 a.m. winds, exceeding 100 miles per hour, began to rise rapidly and over the next eight hours wrought destruction over much of southern New Brunswick with Saint John being hit the hardest. Salt spray from the Bay was found on buildings as far as 20 miles inland. It damaged trees and caused complete power failure in the City and many suburban communities. With the high wind, power poles snapped like matchsticks and roofs were torn off. A new high rise building was being constructed on King Street, sheets of plywood used to cover the window spaces, were ripped off. They flew through the air and slammed into cars and other buildings causing great damage.

The winds pushed saltwater from both the Harbour and Courtenay Bay over low lying areas throughout the City. Both the Courtenay Bay Causeway and the Marsh Creek bridge were in danger of being washed away from the pounding of the huge waves, as well, a large barge in Courtenay Bay broke from its moorings and was driven against the bank of the causeway. The Saint John Throughway, which was then still under construction was opened to traffic as it was the only available exit from the City to the east.

No other storm of such magnitude had struck this area since the Saxby Gale on October 4, 1869. The Saxby Gale had been predicted a year earlier and an account had actually been put in the local newspaper. Unfortunately, few paid any attention. S.M. Saxby was an instructor in engineering with the Royal Navy in Great Britain. In November 1868, he announced in several newspapers that at 7 a.m. on October 5, 1869, the earth would be visited by a "a storm of unusual violence, attended by an extraordinary rise of tide."

The storm made its way along the Bay of Fundy, coinciding with the high tide. In Charlotte County, a small group of Indians camping along the shore, were among the first to feel the effects. They made haste to move their encampment further into the safety of the woods. However, in the confusion, one of them started northward along the coast in his canoe. With the tide and the wind rising rapidly he furiously paddled his craft into the protection of a small creek and struggled against wind and water to drag it ashore. There, exhausted, he turned it over, crept under it and slept. In the morning he found himself half a mile from the sea and with no sign of the supposed creek. One of the worst incidents of that storm was at New River Beach. There, the barque Genii which had been launched at St. Andrews less than a month before, was wrecked with a reported loss of 11 lives.

Even without storms the Bay dominates our weather patterns. Along its coast, fog is an accepted part of summer. The Bay stays cool in summer and unfrozen in winter. This moderates the coastal climate bringing late springs, cool summers, lingering autumns, and moist mild winters.

Stephen Saxby was a 19th century British Naval instructor who believed you could predict the weather based on lunar cycles. In late 1868, he made a very-long-range and very vague forecast of a major storm somewhere in the world on or around October 5, 1869, based on the special lunar significance of that day: there would be a new moon, directly overhead at the equator, with the moon as close to the earth as it ever gets. This combination occurs, on average, just once every ten to twenty years. And wouldn't you know, a powerful storm lashed the northeastern U.S. and Canadian Maritimes with heavy rain, strong winds, and coastal flooding on October 4, 1869 - a storm that became known as "Saxby's Gale." Through sheer coincidence, a legend was born.

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