Monday, November 04, 2013

Calm and cold Monday

Hydro crews remove a tree from a crushed car in Montreal on Saturday. (CTV)
It is the coldest morning of the season so far in Montreal with -6C at the Airport and -5C here on L'Ile Perrot. I twill be a calm, dry day after the major windstorm on Friday. Look for sunshine through Wednesday along with a gradual warming trend. Highs today will be only around 2 or 3C (35-40F) with lows back well below freezing tonight. It will warm to 8C (48F) on Tuesday.

It took the better part of the weekend along with utility crews from Vermont and New Brunswick for all the power to be restored after that wild wind on Friday put over half a million Ontario and Quebec homes in the dark. Gusts out of the southwest ahead of a cold front reached 100-110km/h (60-65 mph) from Lake Ontario towards northern Maine. Hundreds of thousands of Quebec homes and businesses were plunged into the dark after trees fell on power lines and even some power poles came down. Damage was widespread with many trees falling on homes and cars, damage to roofs and other infrastructure being reported. Sadly one tree crushed a woman in her car in Port Colborne, Ontario.

Meanwhile winter is well established across western Canada with portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan reporting 10-30cm of snow on the ground. This morning temperatures are very cold with blowing snow reported in both Regina and Saskatoon. Edmonton is -9C after 10cm of snow and Calagry is -6C. Over 30cm fell in Red Deer with travel very poor over the weekend. It will remain cold this week.
Numerous accidents were reported along Highway 2 in Alberta after heavy snow and strong winds this past weekend.  Get ready now folks across the rest of Canada and slow down to avoid this. We all have the power.(Alberta RCMP)


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