Clear & cold week ahead for southern Quebec

January is one tough month to get through, very ironic as we start the new year with so much hope and energy. Truth is, here in Montreal at least, it is a dark, windy and cold month. This month for example we have only been above freezing on two days, both those days had stormy weather to compensate for the warmth. It is cold again this morning, currently at -19C (-2F) at my home on L'Ile Perrot, with clear skies but a gusty northwest winds making it feel more like -28C. It will not warm much today, perhaps -13C or so by late this afternoon. Another cold night tonight with a forecast low of -18C. The rest of the week looks tranquil with the next chance of precipitation coming from a weak system Saturday. No big storms on the horizon, just seasonal cold and typical January weather.

Just one example of the thousands of accidents that occured Sunday and early Monday on New England and Northeast US highways due to ice.

Carnage on Northeast Roads
The winter storm over the weekend proved not to be a strong as originally thought. Montreal had between 5-10cm of snow, depending where you were in the metro area. Other regions had between 10-20cm of snow with the most falling over the Green Mountains of Vermont as well as northeast of Quebec City and in Labrador. The big news form this weekends storm is how deadly it turned on Northeast U.S. and New England highways. Light rain onto very cold highways produced black ice Sunday morning. Thousands of accidents were reported from Pennsylvania into Vermont with 9 fatalities and scores of injuries. Many highways were closed including major interstates. Two of the deaths occurred just outside Burlington, Vermont on Monday morning. Others occurred in two separate pile ups in eastern Pennsylvania on Sunday. Black ice as well as excessive speed were reported as the cause of most accidents. I hate freezing rain, it just plain scares me, and not too much does, it is unforgiving. The best advice always is just stay home or delay your departure if at all possible.