First Snow Alert

Snow in Clagary (left) and Houston. Our turn will be this week.

CBC.ca and the Houston Chronicle.

I have been interested in weather since I was a child growing up in Verdun. I began keeping daily weather records in 1979, yep 30 years ago! I used to go by the name VAWB (Verdun Amateur Weather Bureau). It was a little harder in those days, not the same technology we have now, you really had to watch and understand the weather to make a prediction. One thing I liked to do back then was issue my own warnings for people when I felt the forecasters were being a little cautious. One such warning was only issued once a year, the first snow alert. So today I am warning all my readers and friends, we have a first snow alert posted for Montreal, southwest Quebec and all of eastern and Southern Ontario.

Here is the long played out scenario: First of all the Houston snowstorm will move off the middle Atlantic coast today and hit the Maratimes tonight. The Calgary storm that produced visibilities of less than 1km for over 10 hours will slide just south of Montreal on Monday and produce a general 1-3cm snowfall in our region. Cold air will then pour into the region behind that storm while low pressure begins to organize in the US southwest.

The southwestern storm will then move across the Midwest and to near the lower Great Lakes on Wednesday. This storm will have good atmospheric support, a strong wind field and plenty of moisture as it passes just south of Montreal mid week. Combine that with the newly arrived cold air mass, and we are looking at our first snowstorm potential for Wednesday and Thursday. It is early yet, but successive computer model runs are pointing to s significant winter storm for Ontario and Quebec. Stay tuned folks!