Storm Update
Ottawa 50cm, Montreal 40cm, Cornwall 45cm...

Unreal...Incredible...this was a storm for the record books, well forecasted from start to finish. The storm was caused by low pressure sliding down the St. Lawrence Valley. For that reason the hardest hit areas were from Ottawa to Kingston and northeast towards Quebec City. Many roads were closed last night in eastern Ontario and especially along the south shore of Montreal. Drivers were rescued by snowmobile in many cases. The wind was fierce with gusts to 82km/h at Montreal, 100km/h along the South Shore, 58km/h in Ottawa and 85km/h at Cornwal. Thunder was reported with the snow in Cornwall. The lowest pressure with the storm was around 986mb a formidable storm for sure. I was amazed by the duration of near zero visibility, 12 hours at Dorval in Montreal with less than 0.6km. It was even less across the southern part of the valley, close to zero. Transport Quebec and Provincial Police on both sides of the border were forced to close roads. They had no choice travel was impossible. Hundreds of cars were abandoned on area roads.

In addition over 84,000 clients were left without power in Quebec. Conditions will slowly improve today, but roads remain snow covered and blowing snow is a problem. The biggest storm of the year has also created chaos at airports in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. Call ahead - but the first flight since late yesterday afternoon left Montreal at 8:30am this morning.

More details later today with my pictures as well.