Green, wet and warm holiday season in Montreal

A snowless nativity scene on Boxing Day in Vaudreuil-Dorion. Despite an early December snowstorm, no snow was left for the holidays across the Montreal region. That and very mild temperatures has curtailed most outdoor winter activities. The snowless weather has however, allowed for much better travel conditions than last Christmas. (Valley Weather Photo)

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all my readers.

It certainly does not look or feel like the holiday seasons I was accustomed to as a child growing up in the 1970s. This week has been rather dreary, with a damp northeast wind, and temperatures well-above the freezing point. The temperature has been above freezing since the wee hours of December 24th. December has been warm overall, despite the snowstorm on the 3rd of the month. High temperatures have been above 0C (32F) on 17 of the 27 days to date.

This has resulted in no snow cover at all in the Montreal region, just a dreary brown landscape. Low level moisture is been dominating the weather over the last week, with plenty of drizzle, cloud cover and areas of dense fog. To make matters even more unpleasant, a damp northeast wind has prevailed most of the week.

This years green Christmas was the sixth in the last ten years at Trudeau Airport. Since 1955 when data for such things began, Montreal has recorded 19 years with no snow for Christmas Day. A white Christmas is determined by the presence of at least 2cm of snow on the ground Christmas morning.

So if you are keeping track, there has been snow on Christmas Day in Montreal 72.06% of the time over the last 68 years. The decade of the 1970s was special if you like snowy winters. Only December 25, 1971 and 1979 had no snow on the ground. That represented an 80 percent chance of snow on December 25, which has now dropped to just 60 percent. 

We can debate about it the reason why, but the reality is that our Decembers are warming. So forget about outdoor skating, sledding or using the new snowshoes Santa brought you, at least for now. The next few days will be rather mild and grey, as we add to the monthly rainfall totals. To date, 90.8mm of rain has fallen at Trudeau Airport, well over the normal value of 38.8mm and closing in on the record of 111.9mm set in 1920.

As we look ahead, colder air will begin to arrive in southern Ontario and Quebec for the New Year. However it will only be marginally colder, as most of the country is well-above normal. The drizzle and showers of Thursday, will mix with some wet snow on Friday and Saturday. The weekend looks much the same at this time, with unsettled weather lingering. Temperatures will however be dropping back below freezing by New Years Eve and remaining there to begin January.