Friday, December 21, 2012

Winter Solstice with a storm

While it has been mostly rain on the Island of Montreal, you don't have to go far north to find lots of snow. This Highway 15 Transport Quebec camera shows heavy wet snow in Blainville, north of the city.
Winter arrived at 6:12am this morning in Montreal, and despite dire predictions of both the forecast and world, I am still here. Today is the shortest day of the year with only 8 hours and 44 minutes of daylight here in Montreal.

A deep and intense winter storm moved into the region overnight after slamming the upper Midwest on Thursday. Many areas reported over 30 cm (1 foot) of wind driven snow especially across Wisconsin and Iowa. The snow was pushed around by 50mph winds in many cases with blizzard conditions closing roads and schools. This morning slightly milder southeast winds in the St. Lawrence Valley have allowed most of the precipitation to fall as rain and sleet overnight here on L'Ile Perrot. In the last hour the precipitation has changed to wet snow here at my home. North and west of the city towards the Ottawa Valley and the Laurentians, it has been all snow. For those reasons, the snowfall warning for Montreal to Cornwall has been lowed, however a winter storm warning does remain in effect for areas north of Laval as well as Ottawa. The snow has forced dozens of schools to close in the area as well as suspension of school bus service.Those areas will remain as snow with upwards of 25cm likely. In Montreal it will be a messy, windy mix all day with perhaps a slushy 5cm in places. Winds will increase to 50km/h and temperatures will however around the 1C mark. Overnight more wind and snow as the low begins to lose some punch but slides slowly across extreme northern New York. Low temperatures will remain around 0C. Saturday will be snowy and windy with perhaps another 5cm of snow and dropping temperatures down to -6C by the end of the day.

It will be a very busy day on the roads so drive with extreme care as I can guarantee there will be lots of ice around late today and Saturday.

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