Storms slam region

Strong thunderstorms move across Highway 20 in Beaconsfield yesterday afternoon. (ValleyWX Pic)

- 83km/h winds at Trudeau Airport

- Baseball size hail in Napierreville

- Large 2-3cm hail on West Island and South Shore

- Rock climber struck by lightning & killed, St. Raymond-de-portneuf.

It was another warm and humid day across Ontario and Quebec on Wednesday with the temperature soaring in places that lost cloud cover early. Toronto hit 36.3C breaking the old record by 0.2 degrees. Windsor was the hot spot in the country at 37.9C or 101F. Windsor's day was interesting to say the least with the daytime high of 38C recorded at 6pm and the daytime low of 18C one hour later at 7pm. The rapid cool down was thanks to strong thunderstorms moving south from Michigan with heavy rain, over 50mm.

Meanwhile Montreal managed to squeeze a 29C (85F) at the airport before big thunderstorms swept the region around 5pm. The storms moved across the island of Montreal from north to south at the worst possible time, rush hour, with heavy rain producing near zero visibility and slowing traffic to a crawl. One inch hail was also reported in the West Island and South Shore with the storm as well as strong gusty winds. Hydro Quebec reported power outages to about 20,000 subscribers in southern Quebec including about 9000 in Montreal. Only minor flooding was reported and other than a few tree branches being blown down, no damage was observed. The same line of storms swept into northern Vermont hitting Burlington around 7pm. They produced four foot waves on Lake Champlain submerging some boats. They also knocked down trees in the Queen City and cut power to thousands of homes and businesses. Numerous trees were knocked over blocking several major roads including Highway 2. Crews were kept busy removing fallen trees from roads and reopening nearly 10 in Burlington alone that were closed at the height of the thunderstorm.

Just some of the tree damage reported in Burlington, Vermont after big storms swept the Queen City around 7pm. (WCAX TV)

It will remain warm across the region into Saturday with daytime highs of 28C here in Montreal today, up to 33C in southwest Ontario. Tomorrow it will be even warmer with highs of 32C in Montreal up to 36C in Toronto and Windsor.