Warm Thanksgiving then below normal temperatures return

The warm Thanksgiving in Montreal will be replaced by much cooler air, clouds and showers as the weeks moves along.

It will be an Indian Summer type day across southern Quebec, Ontario and New England on this Thanksgiving Monday. Temperatures will be on the rise aided by gusty southwest winds up to 50km/h and sunshine. Expect warm highs of 21C to 24C (70 to 75F) across the region, well above the normal high for Montreal of 13C (55F). The brief warmth is being caused by strong low pressure moving out of the Prairies and across the Great Lakes. Montreal has a slight chance at the record high for today of 23.9C (76F) set in 1961.

This system has a strong cold front associated with it that is plunging temperatures back to reality behind it. Over the weekend warm air rushed north ahead of the system pushing temperatures to record levels across the west. It was downright hot in the northern US plains states with Fargo, North Dakota reaching 97F (36C) smashing a 72 year old record of 85F from 1973. Temperatures pushed into the middle to upper 20's across southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan before the front arrived. The front arrived with strong to severe winds sweeping across the region. Gusts were reported to 109km/h at Leader and 104km/h at Assiniboia in Saskatchewan. In Alberta a gust to 111km/h occurred at Alliance and 89km/h in Edmonton.

In Montreal the sunshine of today will be replaced by clouds and showers for the rest of the week. After the warm temperatures today, we will see gradual decline in highs and lows through next weekend. By Saturday the high will only be 6C (43F) in Montreal with lows near freezing and frost expected. We may even see the first snowflakes of the season across the mountains of New York, Vermont, the Laurentians and Townships by late Friday night.