Below normal temperatures

Napierreville, Quebec south of Montreal on Saturday.

Strong low pressure over eastern Canada continues to pump a cold northwest flow of air across southern Quebec and Ontario. High pressure to our west is providing us with mostly sunny and dry weather. A weak trough of low pressure pin wheeling around the Atlantic storm brought some decent snow showers south of the city on Saturday along with blowing snow. I encountered them on Highway 15 near Napierreville (see above photo). They were persistent as far south as Champlain, NY. The same is occurring this morning with some flurries south of the city to the US border. The flurries will dissipate this morning. The big story this weekend and into the early portion of the week is the cold temperatures and strong winds. Winds have been gusty out of the northwest between 30-50km/h with the occasional gust even stronger. Combine the winds with temperatures from 4 to 6 degrees below normal, and it is cold for late March. We struggled to reach 0C all weekend and overnight lows were as cold as -10C in Montreal. With the strong winds late Saturday and early Sunday, wind chills were as cold as -18C. Temperatures will slowly warm this week to near normal and perhaps above by the weekend.

Meanwhile in eastern Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland heavy snow is falling along with the strong winds and cold as winter hangs on. Warnings are in effect for the coastal Gaspe region for snow and blowing snow.