Stormy Saturday

Cleaning up last weeks storm. CBC.ca

While we close the books on this latest winter storm, we will rapidly welcome the next one close on its heels. Montreal received about 15cm of snow at the airport yesterday with a little more perhaps closer to 18cm here off island to the south. Winds were quite gusty last evening with blowing snow and snow covered roads, but nothing we could not deal with in March.

Plowing the Trans Canada service road in Kirkland on Thursday. (ValleyWX Pic)

That storm slowly filled over the region last evening while a second low pressure area developed off the east coast and moved out to sea, brushing Atlantic Canada. Our next weather maker is a strong developing low over the southern plains that is forecast to move towards the Great Lakes and into central Quebec on Saturday. This storm will have warmer air than its predecessor so we are looking at snow this evening changing to rain before morning. Temperatures will be around 0C today but rise to plus 4C on Saturday. We are looking at about 2-5cm of snow here in Montreal followed by a few millimetres of rain. The big component with this storm will be a potent cold front that will generate thunderstorms from southern Ontario southward into the Gulf states. Some of the storms will be severe today from Kentucky and Ohio south with the risk of large hail, damaging winds and long track tornadoes. As the cold front approaches our region Saturday very strong southwest winds will develop up to 70km/h with some gusts approaching 90km/h in the St. Lawrence Valley. Wind warnings mat be needed for a portion of the area on Saturday. Sunday will be much calmer with cloudy skies and a few flurries, but a little cooler at -3C.

I will post an update on this winter storm later this morning.