Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A little snow this week

Traffic sits still on Interstate 89 in Vermont on Monday morning after light snow and ice caused a  fatal accident closing the road for over 1 hour. (Ryan Mercer - Burlington Free Press)
It was cold overnight here in Montreal before the clouds moved in and slowed the temperature decline. We managed -10C here on L'Ile Perrot at around 1am, the coldest so far this season. With the month drawing to a close and only a trace of snow and a paltry 12.4mm (about one half inch) of precipitation at Trudeau Airport, it appears we are on our way to one of the driest November's on record. The end of the month will feature a zonal flow which typically brings weaker systems across our area every other day, so no large amounts of precipitation are forecast. Such was the case yesterday morning as a very weak band of snow moved south of Montreal, just clipping us here on L'Ile Perrot and the South Shore, and moving into the Champlain Valley and Vermont. The snow arrived in time for the morning commute in Vermont and caught motorists and road crews off guard. The result was several accidents that closed Interstate 89 for up to one hour.

This morning there are just a few flurries in the area as moisture is fairly limited. Even the lake effect snow bands are weakening off both lakes Ontario and Erie. Yesterday Wiarton, Ontario picked up 24cm of snow off Georgian Bay. Skies will eventually clear out today before the arrival of the next cold front late Wednesday. This will produce another shot of snow showers and much colder air into Thursday. That front will move back north as a warm front over the weekend with temperatures expected to rise to well above normal values into Sunday and Monday. At this time no major storms are in our future. Today will remain chilly reaching -1C (30F), but by Sunday highs will be well above freezing between plus 5 and 7C (40-45F).

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