A warm weekend ahead

The forecast for warmer weather is still on for portions of Ontario and Quebec. Strong high pressure near Bermuda is pumping warm air north into the eastern third of North America. Where the forecast becomes problematic is along the periphery of the warm air. The St. Lawrence Valley has been a roadway for cold and damp air from the North Atlantic to stream southwest where it encounters the warm air over southwest Quebec. That has made the temperature forecast very problematic this week. The result was wet snow yesterday in Montreal when we expected showers and temperatures much warmer. The temperature spread has been significant over a very small area with temperatures hovering just above freezing in Montreal yesterday at 2.5C for a high while Toronto reached 18C and Brockville close to 10C. The warm air is having trouble again this morning displacing the cold, dense air across Eastern Ontario and west Quebec. A line of showers and thunderstorms has developed across eastern Ontario and will slowly lift northeast today. There is even some freezing rain and hail being reported this morning in the Ottawa Valley with temperatures at or just below 0C.

Bottom line is we feel it will be a damp and chilly 24 to 36 hours more with some light rain and drizzle at times and even the rumble of thunder in the region. Once the front clears the area by early Saturday look for an unprecedented warm weekend with highs into the 20's by Sunday under sunny skies. The normal high for March 15 is 3C and the normal low -6C.