Potent snow stays south of Montreal - cold start to April

Northbound Highway 400 in southern Ontario Sunday afternoon. Snow, cold and strong winds made travel difficult across the region with multiple accidents reported. (Twitter Photo #onstorm)

A strong arctic front swept through eastern Ontario and southern Quebec Saturday afternoon. The front was accompanied by heavy showers with some thunder and small hail reported in both Cornwall and Montreal. The front also ushered in very cold arctic air with temperatures Sunday in Montreal, around -5C (23F), almost 15 degrees below normal. Strong northwest winds, in excess of 50km/h, accompanied the cold, dropping windchill values into the minus teens. Adding to the wintry weather tonight will be a very cold low of -10C (14F). Monday will be breezy and partly cloudy, with perhaps a stray snowflake, and a cold high of -3C. Monday night will be cold once again, dropping down to -12C (10F) in Montreal.

The storm track will keep cold air locked in place in southern Quebec, but thankfully the snow will remain south of the city. (AccuwWeather.com)

We are actually quite lucky here in Montreal. A potent Alberta Clipper type snowstorm is rapidly crossing the Great Lakes this evening, with steady snow across the GTA. Toronto was down to 0.8 km visibility in moderate snow and blowing snow during Sunday evening. Numerous accidents were reported on snow covered highways around the Great Lakes. Snowfall warnings are in effect around the western end of Lake Ontario and eastern Lake Erie. Snow is expected to accumulate between 10 and 20cm (4 to 8 inches) in a swath from southern Ontario into western New York and southern New England by late Monday. For some, this may be the largest snowfall of the winter. More cold air will surge into southern Quebec for the middle portion of the week with the potential for mixed snow and rain here in Montreal. We will have to watch for the potential of measurable snow in the Thursday to Saturday time frame.