Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Prairie snowstorm

Skies begin to clear out as what remains of a cold front moves south and east as the sun sets over Montreal. Note the plane taking off from Dorval on the left and St. Joseph's Oratory on the right. SB Photo

A potent low pressure area moving across the state of Montana is bringing a wide variety of weather to the central and northern US as well as the southern prairies. Despite the calender heavy snow has been falling in southern Alberta with nearly 50cm along the foothills of the Rockies. The snow is moving into southwest and southern Saskatchewan where warnings are in effect for the Cypress Hills and Assiniboia region. That area can expect 10-20cm of wet snow. The snow has started falling this morning as temperatures have slipped to the freezing point in many regions. Accompanying the snow will be strong winds out of the northeast at 50-70km/h. The same storm is producing a wide swath of severe weather along the trailing cold front. Tornadoes and hail are expected from central Nebraska to southern Texas. The system is expected to continue east with a soaking rain and thunderstorms forecast for Ontario and Quebec late Thursday into Friday. More on that later today.

Meanwhile yesterday's heat shattered more weather records in Quebec and New England. It was 92F in Portland, Maine. That temperature was the warmest April day ever recorded in that city. Boston was 90F to set a record, but it is only forecast to reach 57F today as much colder air filters into the east coast.

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