Record warmth for December

Area temperatures at 3pm on Tuesday, looking more like early October and not December. You can add record highs of 19C in both Cornwall and Brockville to that list. (Weather Underground)

Several high temperature records fell across Ontario and Quebec on Tuesday as a warm southwest flow of air prevailed across much of the east. Temperatures soared to 19C (66F) in Brockville, Ottawa and Cornwall smashing records, some as old as the late 1800's. Green grass has replaced what should be snow covered lawns as this remarkably warm year continues. Montreal had a light southeast breeze which capped our high at 13C just shy of the 1982 record of 15C. A cold front advanced across the area last night with around 10mm of rain and has moved off to the southeast. In its wake we will have a breezy day with dropping temperatures. L'Ile Perrot currently sits at 6C, which will be the warmest of the day. Temperatures will continue to slide on this endless roller coaster ride all the way back down to -3C by days end with overnight lows to -8C. It will be colder the balance of the week but still above normal in the temperature department.

As far as winter weather goes, arctic air has most of Alaska and northwest Canada in its grip with little bite size pieced falling off and drifting across the Prairies. How cold? Fairbanks in Alaska has been below -18C since mid November for highs and lows. November in Fairbanks was the coldest in 100 years. Temperatures have been as cold as -56F in portions of the state and forecasters see no relief any time soon.

For Montreal, several areas of low pressure are forecast to move into our area by the weekend and early next week with perhaps some rain or snow. As I mentioned yesterday temperature profiles suggest a mix of precipitation but it is way too soon to tell how much of each. It will however remain mild.