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Reflections: 1926 blizzards almost paralyzed Perth County

The newspapers of the day described the early-spring snowstorms as the worst in decades

After experiencing a winter that has been longer and snowier than recent years, many are eagerly awaiting warmer springtime temperatures. A similarly persistent winter affected much of Ontario in 1926, and a series of blizzards that swept through Perth County in the days leading up to Easter were considered the worst spring snowstorms in decades.

In a Beacon Herald article published April 1, 1926, a Listowel reporter stated that March had gone out “like a Lion” in reference to the storms. They wrote, “’like the lion that ramped and roared with horrid laughing jaw,’ it snapped the branches off the trees and tossed them against the windows; it broke off telephone and telegraph connections; it conquered hydro and left the town darker than the oldest inhabitant remembered it in the good old days. . . . Then as if to give an exhibition of its varied powers it threw........

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