Montreal remains on northwest edge of powerful Nor'Easter

A powerful Nor'Easter resembling a hurricane meanders off the east coast of the United States over the weekend. The storm produced widespread coastal flooding and damage from New England to North Carolina. (NOAA)

A powerful coastal storm has pushed clouds and showers into Montreal early Monday morning. The storm has been meandering off the eastern coast of the United States, hammering the region with high surf, strong winds and heavy rain. The coastal impacts have been significant, with widespread damage and flooding reported. Power is out to over 30,000 homes and businesses across the middle Atlantic and New England. Several regions including coastal New Jersey, Long Island and Hatteras Island, North Carolina have declared local states of emergency.

Ocean over wash across Highway 12 on Hatteras Island in North Carolina. Pounding surf over several days eroded the dune line an washed over the coastal highway. (NCDOT)

Successive high tides over the weekend, combined with pounding surf and winds over tropical storm strength, inundated coastal homes and roads. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina was washed out resulting in thousands of tourists being stranded. Emergency ferry service has been established, but the process is slow.

Here in the St. Lawrence Valley, we are seeing waves of light precipitation Monday morning, pinwheeling around strong low pressure located along the New Jersey coast. Monday will be a showery, chilly day in Montreal, with continued northeast winds, gusting up to 50km/h and a high of 16C (60F). Those winds pushed over 60km/h in parts of the region on Sunday, as we remained fully in the broad circulation of the east coast storm.

High pressure will settle into southern Quebec on Tuesday, accompanied by clearing skies. Temperatures will remain above normal in Montreal for most of the upcoming week.