Thursday, October 15, 2009

Storms stay to the east

The fist few snowflakes of the season were in the air in Montreal yesterday afternoon. Montreal managed a chilly 4C for a high temperature with a low of 0C at 6am this morning. Cloud cover and breezy northeast winds meant little to no frost in Montreal. Portions of eastern Ontario, including Kemptville had a hard freeze last night, -4C with general frost, and an end to the growing season.

Two strong east coast storms are in the weather news this morning. Nor’easter 1 moved from coastal North Carolina towards Newfoundland and intensified rapidly. The storm dumped 67mm of rain on Bonavista and 47mm of rain including 5.2cm of wet snow on St. John’s. Winds were fierce with a peak gust at 157km/h on the Sea Rose Oil Platform, 133km/h at Bonavista and 98km/h at Twillingate. Trees and power lines were toppled in the region.

A second storm is currently developing along the Carolina coast and has pushed precipitation as far north as New York and Pennsylvania this morning. Heavy rain and interior mountain wet snow is expected along the track and to the west of the storm as it moves towards Atlantic Canada by Saturday. So far Winter Storm Watches and Warnings are in effect from interior Pennsylvania across the southern tier of New York State. Up to a foot of wet snow is expected at the highest elevations. This early wet snow is capable of damaging trees that still contain most of their leaves. Coastal flood watches and gale warnings are in effect along the east coast from the Outer Banks northward to Maine. There are still some uncertainties in the track of the system, but showers and flurries are now forecast for the St. Lawrence Valley on Saturday. Stay tuned for more info on the new storm later today.

No comments: