Chilly start to June for Montreal

Montreal will remain just on the northern edge of a windy wet storm to start June. Clouds, showers and cool weather are expected through Tuesday.

Welcome to meteorological summer. I know it does not feel like it this morning but we have turned the page on the calendar and are now into the warmest three months of the year. We are off to a rather cool start this Monday after a bizarre weather weekend. On Saturday, Montreal had its warmest high temperature so far in 2015 at 30.5C (87F). A few spots even broke the 32C (90F) mark in southern Quebec and northern New England.  Strong thunderstorms occurred all around the city of Montreal but none here. As a matter of fact the last three severe weather outbreaks in southern Quebec have missed Montreal. Storms did occur elsewhere in the province with tress down, thousands without power and over 25mm (1 inch) of rain in a short period of time in the Laurentians along the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal and across the Townships. Heavy rain also fell across southern Ontario with 74.2mm in Windsor for the weekend, more than I measured at my home on L'Ile Perrot the entire month of May. The front brought a sharp drop in temperatures from 31C at my home late Saturday down to 8C by Sunday morning.

Strong wind gusts over 70km/h in southern Quebec on Saturday peeled back the roof of this apartment building in the Auteuil district of Laval. (@JWhittalTWN) (Photo: Mel Sicard)

Sunday turned out to be a very cold day with a well below normal high of only 14C (58F) in Montreal along with spotty showers and gusty northwest winds. The rainfall to end the month in Montreal brought us up to 77.2mm for May, just shy of the normal of 81.2mm. Most of the rain was convective in nature so it was highly variable around the city with only 60 to 65mm reported in Vaudreuil and L'Ile Perrot for the month, but 108.2mm at the McTavish station in downtown Montreal. May was a very warm month despite what many think. The average temperature was 16.6C (61.8F) at Trudeau Airport well above the 30 year average of 13.4C (56.1F).

June will start chilly as strong low pressure passes south of Montreal. Showers and clouds will dominate the weather through Tuesday night with temperatures no better than 15C (59F). High pressure will move into southern Quebec by Wednesday with sunny, warm and dry weather forecast to end the week.