Friday, February 21, 2014

Rainy windy Friday - turning much colder this weekend

This same storm that is giving Montreal rain is producing big thunderstorms up and down the east coast. This spectacular shot via Twitter was taken in downtown Nashville Thursday afternoon.
Freezing rain warnings remain posted for the entire area, however it has warmed above freezing south of the St. Lawrence River, so they should expire in those areas soon. Low pressure this morning is over Wisconsin with a very long warm front to the east across Ontario and New York State. The front will attempt to lift north of Montreal this morning. Precipitation has overspread the area in the form of freezing rain or rain. I am showing rain here on L'Ile Perrot at 1C (33F) so I think icing will be limited. However as I have mentioned, the ground remains cold so ice can be hiding under any puddle! It will be a mild and windy day with plenty of rain around, up to 25mm (1 inch) possible, high 5C (41F). Winds will increase as well today from 50-80km/h out of the southwest by afternoon. The rain will taper to a few flurries tonight as a cold front crosses the region. There may be a few heavier showers along the front and still the possibility of a rumble of thunder. Thunder was reported in Toronto late last night along the warm front.

Saturday will be another windy, mild day as the storm system stalls across central Quebec. Montreal will have one more warm day before another cold snap starts by Sunday. The high Saturday will be 4C but only -3C on Sunday. Next week looks very cold with highs in the -6 to -10C range and very cold overnight lows down to -18C.

This system has had widespread impacts with cold snowy weather across northwest Ontario and the upper Midwest, and severe thunderstorms with tornadoes across the Ohio Valley southward to the Gulf Coast.

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