First Day of Spring?

Highway 20 near the Ontario border today. Visibility was under 1km at times in wet snow. ValleyWX Pic

After an unseasonably mild month of March that has seen the mercury above freezing each and everyday including record highs in the mid-teens this past week, what would you expect for the first full day of spring? Exactly snow!

It has been snowing all day in the St. Lawrence Valley from Cornwall to Montreal. In the last several hours the steady snow has lowered visibility to under a kilometre at times on area highways and the snow is beginning to stick in many places. A couple of centimetres has accumulated on grassy areas and cars here in Ile Perrot, and as the temperatures continues to lower, roads will become icy as well. Many people took their winter tires off this past week, which I think may have been a little too early. The snow will taper off after midnight followed by a cloudy and milder day Monday. Another low pressure area in the Ohio Valley will move south of Montreal Tuesday pushing heavy precipitation into the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Valley's. At this time it appears that most of it will fall as rain but a significant amount of freezing rain is possible in many areas including Ottawa and Montreal Monday night. More details on that tomorrow morning.

In the meantime if you are travelling the 401/20 or 40/417 tonight expect some slick spots and reduced visibility for several more hours.