Warm & humid start to the week for Quebec & Ontario

The annual Valleyfield Regatta hydroplane races in southern Quebec had perfect weather over the weekend. (Photo Regates Valleyfield).

It is a grab bag of weather across North America as this El Nino driven summer continues to unfold. Some of the warmest air this summer has streamed into southern Quebec and Ontario over the last few days with daily highs over the weekend in the upper 20's and low 30's. I recorded 31C (88F) on L'Ile Perrot on Sunday, while the typically cooler Trudeau Airport had 29.5C (85F). So officially we are still stuck at two 30C days for summer 2015 in Montreal. It was a dry weekend in Montreal but some rather decent thunderstorms with hail and gusty winds did affect the Gatineau region into southeastern Ontario late Sunday afternoon.

Today will be another warm and humid day with scattered afternoon thunderstorms and a high near 30C (86F). Tonight will be warm and humid with lows in the low 20's (70F). On Tuesday more sunshine and warm highs will fade behind afternoon clouds as a cold front arrives and cools us down for Wednesday. More showers and some thunder are possible along that front Tuesday evening. The high on Tuesday will be 30C (86F) for Montreal, lowering to 25C (77F) for Wednesday with clearing skies.

July snow stunned travelers along the higher elevations of the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California on Friday, including those at Tioga Pass shown above. (CalTrans Photo.)

Weather features over the weekend included big thunderstorms across the southern Prairies with large hail, strong winds and even a few isolated tornadoes. Most of the country remained rather warm on Sunday with more heat forecast to start the week. It remains dangerously dry across portions of western Canada. Despite the fact it is July, an upper level low over northern California, produced some July snow across the eastern Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Look for more bizarre weather across North America as the El Nino off the South American Pacific coast continues to strengthen into the fall.