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wreckhouse winds
DCHP-2 (Apr 2013)
Spelling variants:Wreckhouse winds
n. — Newfoundland, Outdoors
strong southeasterly winds on the southwest coast of Newfoundland.
Type: 1. Origin — These strong winds are named for the area in Newfoundland where they occur (see the 2004 quotation). They are comparable to Les Suêtes in Cape Breton (see the 2006 quotation). The term is virtually restricted to Newfoundland (see Chart 1) and is a locally limited term that has little to no currency beyond that particular geographic context.
See COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn", but not Newfoundland.
See COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn", but not Newfoundland.
See: Les Suêtes
Quotations
2004
In the Canadian Province of Newfoundland, when forecasts warn of Wreckhouse winds, drivers on the Trans-Canada Highway had better take notice. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Wreckhouse winds arise when strong southeasterly gales blow along the south coast of Newfoundland between Cape Ray and St. Andrew's. Channelled between the Long Range Mountains, north of Port aux Basques, the downslope winds west of the range often increase to hurricane speeds as they stream through the valleys and gulches of the Codroy Valley, below Table Mountain.
The full severity of these winds became apparent only after the Newfoundland Railway was built through the region. During a January 1900 storm, winds shoved an unsuspecting passenger train completely off the tracks. Though no lives were lost, all the mail and baggage were. This incident spawned the name, Wreckhouse.
Unable to reroute the rail line, the rail company hired a local trapper and farmer, Lockie MacDougall, in the 1930s to watch for the fierce winds. If Wreckhouse winds were blowing, he informed the nearby rail office to halt trains before they reach the Codroy Valley. On one occasion, the conductor ignored Lockie’s advice, and twenty-two railcars were blown off the tracks.
2005
Even more snow is expected in Cape Breton as the storm progresses northeast toward Newfoundland, where Environment Canada is forecasting "wreckhouse winds," a legendary type of gusting caused when storms rip through the valleys around Port aux Basques.
2006
The strongest gusts reach 200 km/h, so it's no surprise weather warnings are issued when Les Suetes are forecast. Southern Newfoundland also experiences powerful southeast winds and, although some refer to them as Les Suetes, they are more commonly called Wreckhouse winds.
2007
Four strong winds you'll find elsewhere, but down here we have more strong winds than that. On Prince Edward Island, people are said to go mad from the constant blow. In Cape Breton les suetes bring hikers to their knees, literally, and sometimes within an inch of their lives. Named after the French for southeast - sud est - these demonical southeasterlies can funnel down from the highlands at 150 kilometres an hour. You can't stand up in them, let alone back away from the cliff edges they blow you toward. You get down on your knees and crawl away.
But Newfoundland has more strong winds again. The Rock has its stun breezes, as they're called, but at its southwest tip around tiny Wreckhouse, winds blow trains from tracks and 18-wheelers from roads. Newfoundlanders say the blizzards near Wreckhouse make the winters like living in a flour sack.
The Wreckhouse winds employed Lockie MacDougall, a sort of wind-whisperer or human wind sensor, for decades. When he died, his wife Emily took over, drawing $20 a month from the Newfoundland Railway till she moved away. Why did she move? You have to ask? Noel ruined Haligonians' last great beach. And then, as Maritime storms always do, it moved on east to Newfoundland - where, as Maritime storms always do, it got rapidly worse. Noel's highest winds, even higher than when it began in the Caribbean as a certified hurricane, were clocked at a whopping 180 kilometres an hour at Wreckhouse.
References
- COD-2
Images
