Weekend Update

There is plenty to talk about on this Friday morning, and with just a couple of summer weekends left in 2012, I wish I had better news. Today will be the best of the next three with sunshine and continued warm temperatures near 27C (81F). We had another warm and humid day Thursday before isolated strong thunderstorms popped up in the afternoon. Many regions were affected but for the most part the Montreal area was spared with no rain her on L'Ile Perrot.

After the sunshine of today clouds will be on the increase as low pressure develops in the Ohio Valley and move towards Buffalo and eventually Ottawa. This system will bring with it a period of heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms. The rain and thunderstorms will begin on Saturday with 20 to 40mm possible along the track and north of the system, less to the south. In addition to the rain strong winds will develop out of the southwest ahead of a potent cold front. The winds could exceed 50km/h with gusts as high as 70km/h especially in Montreal and the St. Lawrence Valley. Along the cold front strong thunderstorms are possible into the evening hours Saturday night. I will update this potential for severe weather later today and again on Saturday. Also check the twitter feeds on the upper left side of this page. Sunday will be cloudy and cool with gusty northwest winds and highs below normal, near 18C.

The projected path of  Leslie by the National Hurricane Center takes her close to the Avalon Peninsula by next Wednesday.

Hurricane Leslie
Just one more note this morning, Environment Canada continues to monitor the very slow and erratic moving hurricane Leslie. The storm has 75mph winds this morning and is located about 415 miles southeast of Bermuda, roughly where it was 24 hours ago. There is lots of uncertainty with this storm but she could be affecting a portion of Atlantic Canada by the middle of next week. I will be watching Leslie very closely through the weekend and posting updates via the blog, Facebook and twitter.