Quebec cities participating in Earth Hour 2016

Visit earthhour.org to see how you can take part in Earth Hour 2016 this Saturday.

Saturday, March 19th, between 8:30 and 9:30pm local time, is the 10th annual Earth Hour. Participants are asked to shut off all non-essential electricity for one hour and think about their commitment to climate action for the year ahead.  This annual symbolic event, draws attention to climate change, carbon emissions, electricity consumption and the impact our actions are having on our planet. The event has grown over the last decade to include a record-breaking 178 countries this year, on six continents and in 24 time zones. Earth Hour is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation here in Canada, with dozens of municipalities participating. The City of Montreal will turn off the lights in all the main administrative buildings, including city hall, as well as the cross atop Mount Royal, at 8:30pm Saturday night.

After very mild weather and thunderstorms on Thursday, Montreal awoke to a blanket of snow this morning. (ValleyWX)

Potential Snowstorm
We had a wild few hours of weather in Montreal Thursday afternoon. Rare March thunderstorms swept across southern Quebec between 3 and 5pm, with small hail, strong winds and heavy rain. Overnight, another cold front crossed the region, with light rain changing to snow around 3am. We had a good 2-3cm of snow here on L'Ile Perrot this morning, but it is now in the process of melting. This weekend will be chilly, with mostly sunny skies and highs near 0C (32F). Overnight lows will be cold, down to -10C (14F). Late Sunday, low pressure is forecast to develop near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and move northeast along the eastern seaboard. Forecast models have been all over the place, with the track of this particular system varying from a complete miss to significant snow as far west as Montreal. We will have to keep an eye on this storm, but at this time, my feeling is that we will get just a few flurries and gusty northeast winds late Sunday and Monday, with not much more for southern Quebec.