Massive winter storm heads for Montreal - southern Quebec

WINTER STORM WARNING: All regions of the St. Lawrence Valley, northern New York and Vermont.

Happy Holidays everyone, our quiet weather of the last 48 hours is about to change. We had the coldest night this winter with a low reading of -16C here on L'Ile Perrot. Boxing Day will be fair with some clouds increasing and perhaps a few flurries with cold highs of only -9C.

A vivid image of a blown transformer illuminating a mature tornado in Mobile, Alabama on Christmas Day. (Accu-Weather.com)

Our attention will now turn to a large area of low pressure in the Tennessee Valley that is forecast to move towards the middle Atlantic states and then off the New England coast. This system was responsible for the largest Christmas Day outbreak of tornadoes in US history, with 15 reported so far. There was plenty of damage and 7 injuries, but thankfully no fatalities. The storms tore across portions of the deep south from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. This storm has a cold side that is dumping heavy snow from the southern plains into the Midwest. This portion of the storm will affect extreme southern Quebec and the St. Lawrence Valley tonight into Friday morning. The snow will start after midnight in Montreal with the heaviest on Thursday. Look for 25 to 40cm along the US border, with 15-25cm in Montreal and 10-15cm in Ottawa. The snow will be blown around by 50km/h northeast winds here in Montreal, that will only strengthen through the day on Thursday up to and over 60km/h. The snow will end Friday morning. Needless to say travel is not advised on Thursday especially in the 401 corridor and south along the US interstates towards Boston and New York City. Temperatures will remain cold around -5C during the storm so the snow will be dry here in Montreal, and easily blown around reducing the visibility considerably.

NOAA image of our large winter storm heading towards the northeast. Snow will arrive in Montreal around midnight.