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).