Much colder weather on the way for Montreal

After 60F weather just hours earlier, shoppers are forced to brave the cold and snow in Minnesota last night as they wait for a Target to open. It is Black Friday today, the biggest shopping day of the year for US retailers. (AP Photo).

Enjoy today, this will be the last really mild day for some time as a strong cold front is about to move across Ontario and Quebec. Montreal's temperature was a balmy 12.4C on Thursday, well above normal for the date. Today will be mild as well with an increasing south wind ahead of the front. Temperatures will rise to 11C before clouds begin to increase late in the afternoon. Those clouds will bring showers with temperatures dropping rapidly overnight to below freezing by Saturday morning. Any showers will switch over to flurries late overnight with a dusting of snow possible especially in the hills north and south of Montreal.

Yesterday Minneapolis, Minnesota set a new record high of 60F, but by the end of the day it was snowing, windy and only 30F. Today, Toronto is at 11C (52F) this morning, but by the end of the day they will drop to 2C (36F). The front will also bring gusty northwest winds across the entire region, up to 50km/h on Saturday. Those winds will produce windchill values well below freezing. The wind will also produce lake effect snow bands off the Great Lakes. The snow will affect the normal regions of Central Ontario as well as western New York. Some locations may see over 10cm of snow by Saturday night.

Looking ahead into next week, there is plenty of uncertainty in the forecast with a storm system coming out of the US southwest. Different computer models are handling the storm with a path anywhere from southern Quebec and Ontario as far south as Tennessee. If the system stays to our south it will be cold enough for snow. We will just have to wait and see over the weekend. The time frame for accumulating snow would be late Tuesday in Wednesday for Montreal if it materializes.