Arctic blast followed by more snow in Quebec and Ontario

Watch out for the orange no parking signs. The clean-up from Monday's storm is underway in Montreal, as we await the next snowfall. (Ville de Montreal Photo)

A series of cold fronts will impact southern Quebec over the next 36 hours. Each front will tap into Great Lakes moisture and produce snow showers, with some isolated heavier squalls. The snow squalls will be most prevalent closer to Lake Ontario and the southern St. Lawrence Valley. In those locations, major accumulations of 10 to 20cm are possible. Keep this in mind if your travels take you down Highway 401 towards Toronto. Away from the lakes, a dusting to as much as 5cm of snow is possible, that would include Montreal. The best chance for the heavier squalls will be this evening and again Thursday afternoon. The temperature will take a nose-dive by Friday morning, reaching near -18C (0F), with dangerous wind chill values close to -30C (-22F) across southern Quebec, eastern Ontario, northern New York and New England. Friday will be frigid, with gusty winds, flurries and a high temperature no better than -13C (9F).

The next storm will produce ice and snow from the Rockies into Ontario and Quebec by the weekend. (AccuWeather)

NEXT STORM ON THE HORIZON
Our next winter storm will arrive late Friday into Saturday. The system will move from the Midwest into the Great Lakes, passing northwest of Montreal, thus allowing some warm air to arrive over southern portions of the province by Sunday. Snow will start very early Saturday and taper off to a few flurries or even rain showers on Sunday. At this time, the amounts look very similar to last Monday, perhaps 10 to 15cm in Montreal. The temperature will warm from -13C (9F) late Friday, to around 2C (36F) by Sunday. As a result, we may see some freezing rain as well mixed in, but this would be very light in nature. Environment Canada has forecast a high temperature of 8C (48F), with some rain for Sunday in Montreal, but I don't believe that much warm air will make it into our area. Any warm-up will be brief, as colder air will quickly return behind this storm to start the last work week before Christmas. The high on Monday will fall below freezing to -5C (23F). Monday should be fair, but with lots of icy spots around from the melting and refreezing of the weekend precipitation.