The snow will melt - warm end to the week in Montreal

Long lines of traffic formed on L'Ile Perrot on Tuesday morning from just a 2cm snowfall. The snow and ice caused dozens of accidents as many motorists decided to wait to put on their winter tires.

The first snowflakes of fall 2015 fell on Montreal Tuesday, with close to 2cm here on L'Ile Perrot. The surprise snow and cold overnight temperatures were enough to ice over highways across the region. This, combined with a general lack of snow tires or rusty winter driving skills, produced dozens of accidents. The result was traffic gridlock in Montreal. My morning commute typically takes 40 minutes, but on Tuesday it stretched to over 2 hours. While the timing and quantity of the snow was a wee bit of a surprise, the fact that winter has arrived should not be to anyone who has lived in Montreal. We get snow every November, get ready for more!

Rain changing to snow late Friday
The weather is much quieter this morning as high pressure crests over southern Quebec. It is a very cold morning with the snow cover providing ideal radiational cooling. L'Ile Perrot dropped to -9C (16F) early this morning. Sunshine and south winds will help the high temperature rebound to 5C (41F) this afternoon. This is the start of a two-day period of well-above normal temperatures. I expect the high on Thursday and Friday to exceed 10C (50F). It will be windy both days with sunshine Thursday. By Friday a strong cold front will approach southern Quebec with increasing clouds. Rain will develop in the afternoon but mix with and change to snow very late at night as the temperature plummets. The high on Saturday will only be -2C (29F). More on the potential snow in the next blog.