Strong storms cool region

NIGHT BECOMES DAY: A flash of lightning illuminates my neighborhood on L'Ile Perrot at 10pm last evening. (ValleyWX Photo)

After sweltering highs in the low to mid 30's on Monday (32C here on L'Ile Perrot) a strong cold front has brought some natural A/C this morning. Strong thunderstorm activity accompanied the front as it moved from northwest to southeast across Ontario & Quebec. The first wave of storms swept east from Ottawa and into Montreal in time for the evening rush hour. This has become a very common trend this summer with traffic slowing to a crawl in heavy blinding rain and gusty winds. After a break a second and more intense line of storms swept the city from end to end at around 10pm. These storms produced vivid, prolonged lightning and strong wind gust close to 100km/h. The lightning began at my home around 9:30pm and lasted nearly two hours. The combination of the two storms brought much needed rain to southern Quebec with 27mm at Trudeau Airport and 41.2mm here on L'Ile Perrot. They also knocked down trees and power lines from Eastern Ontario across the Island of Montreal keeping city firefighters responding to dozens of calls. Also taking a hit was the electrical grid with 10,000 losing power in Ottawa and 80,000 in Quebec including about 20,000 home in metro Montreal. Of that, Hydro Quebec reports about 50 per cent has since been restored. It will be a cooler and drier day today with clouds and sun and just a slight chance of a passing shower. Temperatures will be cooler at 24C (76F).

DAY BECOMES NIGHT: Dark clouds turn 3pm into late evening darkness in Merrickville, Ontario on Monday afternoon. Trees were down and power was out in many eastern Ontario towns. (Photo Maggie LB)

 A wide area of the country was affected by severe weather on Monday. At one point about 7% of the Canadian population was under a tornado watch or warning. Alberta was hard hit with heavy rain and strong winds as well as isolated tornadoes. More tornadoes were also reported in Saskatchewan. More severe weather is likely  today in western Canada, while the threat here in the east has slipped south into southern New England and the Middle Atlantic states.