Unseasonable warmth, snow and hurricane Florence

An infra-red satellite image of hurricane Florence approaching the North Carolina coast early Thursday, September 13. (Tropical Tidbits)

It must be September. The weather has turned wild across parts of North America, as the seasons begin to do battle. While Montreal remains warm and humid, cold air has filtered into western Canada, with the first snowflakes of the season across northern Alberta and B.C. At the same time, no less than 5 tropical systems are in the Atlantic basin, including powerful hurricane Florence.

I will start here in Montreal, where high pressure will dominate our weather into the weekend. Sunshine will prevail, with very warm daytime highs of 27 to 29C (80 to 85F). We have a shot at some record highs late this week, especially Saturday, (29.4C, set in 1947, and Sunday, 26.9C, set in 1991). Our next threat for rainfall may actually come from the remains of Florence by next Tuesday. Plenty of weather has to happen before that scenario plays out.

Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence remains a formidable storm Thursday morning, despite some signs of weakening. The category 2 storm is located 325 km southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina at 5am, moving northwest at 24 km/h. Wind shear and dry air on the southern flank of the hurricane, has brought wind speeds down to 110 mph (175km/h), but Florence remains a very dangerous storm. Landfall is expected later today near Cape Fear, North Carolina, along with a surge of ocean water 6 to 13 feet high. The storm is expected to meander just off the coast of the Carolinas for as much as 36 hours while slowly drifting southwest. Forecasters expect a catastrophic amount of rainfall, perhaps in excess of 30 inches (750 mm). Widespread flooding is expected well inland. Georgia has been added to the list of regions under a state of emergency, which include Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina. While millions have evacuated, many remain behind, with the window of opportunity closing. Winds and seas are rapidly increasing this morning, with the outer bands of Florence already reaching the coast.

A beautiful but somewhat disturbing photo of summer snow taken Wednesday, September 12, in Fort St John, B.C. (Paula MacGregor)

Snow!
Finally, winter has returned to parts of Alberta and B.C., with up to 15cm of snow falling in several locations such as Slave Lake and Fort St. John. The unseasonably cold air mass has dropped temperatures below freezing this morning, including -2C (29F) in Edmonton. They can have it, I will take our hot, humid fall anytime over an early winter. We still have one week left to summer 2018.