Freezing Rain Warning for metro Montreal

Another round of winter weather is expected in southern Quebec and Ontario Saturday night. Expect icy travel into Sunday morning for many parts of the province.

Freezing Rain Warning in effect for Montreal, southern Quebec and the Ottawa Valley.

Precipitation will start this afternoon in Ontario, and early this evening in Montreal. 

A large area of low pressure will slide southeast across the Great Lakes toward southern Quebec later Saturday. A secondary low is expected to develop over New York State and move towards Atlantic Canada.

A warm front will lift across the St. Lawrence Valley Saturday evening, and become the focus for freezing rain. Light snow will start late in the day in Montreal and become mixed with freezing rain Saturday evening. Amounts have been lowered with recent computer runs, with 2-4cm of snow expected, along with 2-5mm of frozen precipitation for Montreal. Roads will become slippery this evening, along with sporadic power outages. Winds will increase form the northeast 20-40km/h, eventually becoming northwest on Sunday, 30-50km/h.

Mostly snow is expected well north and east of Montreal, with 10-20cm possible. This includes Quebec City and the Highway 20 corridor northeast of Montreal.

Temperatures in Montréal will rise to near 0C (32F) this evening and drop on Sunday behind the system, back below freezing by midday. Flurries are possible on Sunday with another 2cm possible. Some heavier but brief bursts of snow are possible on Sunday as well. We saw this Friday afternoon as instability in the atmosphere produced some rather robust snow showers. There were several serious accidents, including one that closed Highway 50 near Papineauville.

So remember, winter driving is here. While precipitation amounts have been lowered, the number of accidents this past week has shown us that road surfaces only need a glaze of ice to become extremely dangerous.