Heavy rain and thunderstorms for Montreal

The storm system impacting Montreal on Sunday, produced multiple tornadoes on Saturday. A strong tornado hit Jonesboro, Arkansas, shown above, destroying homes and businesses and injuring at least six. (The Weather Channel).

Heavy rain warning in effect for metro Montreal and southern Quebec, as well as eastern Ontario, including Ottawa.

An strong upper level low will move into the Great Lakes Sunday and then eastward across Ontario and Quebec. The system will provide abundant precipitation to the region, with heavy rain and scattered thunderstorms forecast for Montreal.

The rain will begin early Sunday and persist into Monday. The risk of thunderstorms will be mainly across eastern Ontario, but a few may wander into southern Quebec. In terms of amounts, up to 50mm (2 inches) of rain will be possible in Montreal. The rain, combined with melting snow, may produce some isolated flooding in low lying areas. According to Public Security Quebec, most rivers in southern Quebec are currently below flood stage but are being closely monitored. The only exception at this time is Lac St Louis at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, which is reported as being in minor flood stage. No flooding has been reported.

Strong winds will accompany the rain, gusting up to 60km/h in Montreal.Warm air will flood into parts of Ontario and New England, but a northeast flow will keep temperatures cooler in the St. Lawrence Valley. The high today will be around 6C (43F) in Montreal.

A small area of heavy wet snow will impact the St. Lawrence Valley northeast of Montreal, as well as adjacent portions of northern Maine and New Hampshire. (AccuWeather)

SPRING SNOW
Even colder air will move into the regions northeast of Montreal into Monday, with rain expected to change to wet snow. Quebec City and points north and east may receive between 10 and 20cm of snow. A special weather statement is in effect for Quebec City, with snowfall warnings in the Charlevoix region.

Colder air will eventually arrive in Montreal late Monday, with rain tapering off to a few flurries.

The same storm was responsible for severe weather across portions of the southern and central US on Saturday and early Sunday. Strong thunderstorms produced multiple tornadoes and hail in many locations from Arkansas to Illinois and points east. More thunderstorms are expected on Sunday from the Ohio Valley into the Northeast.

Spring snow on the way for southern Quebec

Strong winds accompanied a cold front on Friday afternoon, gusting up to 100km/h in southern Quebec. The wind knocked out power to more than 12,000 customers across the southern portion of the province. (Hydro Quebec Photo)

After a bright, sunny and cold weekend, milder temperatures are on the way for Monday, along with some wet snow. The snow should begin late Monday and end early Tuesday, with only 1 to 3cm expected for Montreal.

A strong cold front crossed southern Quebec on Friday, along with the first thunderstorms of the young season. The storms were fast moving, sweeping the Island of Montreal around 3pm, accompanied by heavy rain, lightning and wind gusts to 90km/h. Rainfall was decent, but not as much as I had anticipated, with 16mm falling in Montreal. Friday was the warmest day of 2020 to date, reaching 16.4C (61.5F) in Montreal.

Behind the front, strong west winds persisted well into Saturday, accompanied by rapidly dropping temperatures. Saturday and Sunday were bright and sunny, but blustery and cold. It has been a rather mild March, which made daytime highs below freezing this weekend seem rather frigid. Overnight lows were down into the minus teens, with windchill values approaching -18C (0F).

Montreal will remain on the extreme northern edge of a a quick moving spring coastal storm that will dump as much as 25cm of wet snow on interior southern New England. (AccuWeather.com)

Warmer air is on the way as two low pressure systems slide south of our region. The first will bring a period of wet snow to parts of Ontario tonight and Monday. This system will then be absorbed by a stronger storm moving up the eastern seaboard. The low pressure will pass east of New England before impacting Atlantic Canada. Montreal will remain on the northern of the storm, with a few centimetres of wet snow possible from late Monday into the overnight hours Tuesday. Further south across New England, 5 to 15cm is possible, with 2 to 4cm in eastern Ontario. Most of the snow should melt on contact during the daylight hours, but some slick spots may develop late Monday night.

Skies will clear out Tuesday, along with mild daytime highs of 5 to 7C.

Welcome to Spring 2020 - first thunderstorms of the season possible in Montreal

It continues to be a strange and difficult time for so many around the world and now right here in Montreal and across Canada. The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus has meant lifestyle changes for all of us. I wish all my readers good health as we all continue to deal with this global Pandemic. Be safe and be good to each other.

March an be a nasty month, with historically lots of big snowstorms. This has not been the case in 2020, as only 3.4cm of snow has fallen at Trudeau Airport. On Tuesday morning, some brief steady snow put down a quick 1 to 2cm in Montreal, before temperatures warmed above freezing. (ValleyWeather Pic)

SPRING 2020
The one tiny bit of good news lately has been the weather. Spring officially arrives at 11:50 PM Thursday evening, the earliest arrival in 124 years. Thursday was very springlike in Montreal, reaching a high of 9C (48F) The entire month really has been rather easy, with all the storms travelling to our west, introducing mild air into our region. For that reason, to date, we have had only 3.4cm of snow at Trudeau Airport. The long-term average is 36.2cm. It has been a wet month, with 61mm of rain, and that tend will continue tonight and Friday. The normal rainfall for March is only 29.7mm

THUNDERSTORMS
Strong low pressure will lift across the central Great Lakes on Friday, lifting a warm front across the St. Lawrence Valley. A surge of warm air will accompany the front early Friday, along with a decent shot of steady rain. There is even the risk of a few isolated thunderstorms overnight, with an even greater risk in the afternoon along a potent cold front. Some of the storms may even reach strong to severe limits, with heavy rain and strong winds. Before the front arrives, temperatures will soar into the middle teens, possibly 16C (60F) in some locations across southern Quebec.

After a very warm day on Friday, temperatures will drop rapidly behind a potent cold front. High temperatures on Saturday in Montreal will be nearly 20 degrees colder than Friday. (AccuWeather.com)

The cold front will arrive in the afternoon, accompanied by showers and thunderstorms, as well as very strong winds, gusting from 50 to 70km/h. The front will clear the region late Friday. Temperatures will rapidly fall behind the front, down over 25 degrees from the daytime high, approaching -10C (14F) by Saturday morning. Rainfall amounts on Friday will be in the 15 to 25mm range in Montreal. North and west of the storm track, heavy snow and blowing snow is occurring, with as much as 20cm expected across far northern Ontario and central Quebec.

The weekend will be sunny and cold for southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, with daytime highs of 0C and overnight lows of -10C (14F).

Another round of rain and freezing rain for southern Quebec

Another round of freezing rain is expected early Friday morning in parts of metro Montreal.

Freezing Rain Warning for Montreal and Laval: 2 to 4mm of freezing rain possible early Friday morning. 
Winter Storm Warning for Quebec City. 
High Wind Warning for the Richelieu Valley.

Low pressure will move across the Great Lakes and well north of Montreal over the next 24 hours. We can expect another round of rain and freezing rain across eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. A warm front associated with the storm will lift across the St. Lawrence Valley early Friday morning, rapidly followed by the cold front late in the day. Rain or freezing rain will start before sunrise Friday, changing quickly to rain in Montreal, as temperatures warm to 8C (47F). The rain may be heavy at times in Montreal, with 15 to 25mm possible. A mix of freezing rain and snow is likely northeast of Montreal for most of the day.

As we witnessed on Tuesday, the cold air can be stubborn to move out where northeast winds remain. That included northern portions of Montreal, Laval and areas northeast of the city towards Quebec City. Those regions once again will see the longest duration of freezing rain on Friday. Quebec City will even see a shot of heavy snow, with up to 15cm possible before the changeover.

Strong winds are also forecast to develop on Friday, gusting between 40 and 70km/h in Montreal, and up to 90km/h in the Richelieu Valley. The wind will ease somewhat late Friday, but it will remain breezy into Saturday morning.

Temperatures will begin to drop Friday evening, with any remaining precipitation in Montreal tapering off to flurries. Overnight lows will drop back to the freezing point by Saturday morning.

The storm on Tuesday, produced 12mm of rain and freezing rain in Montreal, with over 20mm of precipitation in Quebec City, including 22 hours of freezing rain.

Freezing rain warning for southern Quebec

A warm front will produce widespread rainfall over southern Quebec late Monday, along with pockets of freezing rain from Laval northward. Between 2 and 15mm of precipitation is forecast for the region.

Freezing Rain Warning for Montreal, Vaudreuil, Lachute, Laurentians and Lanuadiere.

An unsettled but fairly mild weather week lies ahead for southern Quebec. A warm front will approach the region this afternoon, along with a swath of rainfall. Some locations north of the St. Lawrence River will be at or just below the freezing point when the precipitation arrives, therefore Environment Canada has issued a freezing rain warning for Montreal, the Laurentians, Lachute and points north and east. Generally 2 to 5mm of freezing rain is expected, with local amounts approaching 10mm, especially in the Ottawa Valley. I think most of the precipitation will fall as plain rain in Montreal, however the ground is still cold enough from our recent chill, so icy spots are definitely possible, especially in suburban neighbourhoods. Temperatures today will reach 3C (38F) in Montreal, but should remain near 0C north of the city.

Precipitation will taper off to light snow this evening as slightly colder air filters into southern Quebec. The overnight low will be near -1C (30F).  We get to do it all over again on Tuesday, as the cold front stalls just south of Montreal, and weak low pressure moves along it. A mix of rain and snow is possible late Tuesday into the overnight hours. More unsettled weather is forecast to end the week.

 The good news as we take a brief look deeper into March, is that no arctic air is on the horizon. Dare I say we may be looking at a quick end to the winter that wasn't. I will take a more detailed look at winter 2019-2020 in a later post, but we can all honestly say, it was an easy winter. As February draws to a close, it was really the worst month of the season, with 67.6cm of snow measured at Trudeau Airport. Despite all the snow, we still managed above normal temperatures, with a daily average of -6.2C (20.8F). The long-term normal for the month is -7.7 (18.1F).