Heavy rain & snow

NOAA image this afternoon of the developing storm over the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras. Heavy rain and snow will spread north and west.

Environment Canada has issued a bunch of warnings for southern and central Quebec through Monday as two low pressure areas move into the region. The first is dropping across the Great Lakes and into the Ohio Valley, while a second more powerful storm will rapidly develop tonight near Cape Hatteras and race north to near Albany and eventually southern Quebec. Heavy rain warnings are posted for Montreal and southern Quebec tonight as precipitation will spread north and become heavy. It will be mixed with wet snow at times especially in eastern Ontario. Look for rainfall amounts of up to 50mm across the area with some wet snow accumulation as well on grassy surfaces. Further west the snow is expected to be the dominate precipitation type with a late season snowstorm for western New York including Buffalo south into western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Some locations may see up to a foot of heavy wet snow that will bring down trees and power lines. Wind will be another factor with this storm with Wind Advisories in effect for the St. Lawrence Valley. Gusts could easily exceed 70km/h (50 mph) across the area from the Thousand Islands northeast towards Quebec City.

The same storm is forecast to dump heavy rain up and down the eastern seaboard with coastal flooding all the way north into Atlantic Canada. Southern New Brunswick could see 100mm (4 inches) of rain with freezing rain across the north. In central Quebec heavy snow is forecast. This is a developing storm with still some uncertainty so check back later this evening.