Bizarre warm front

Warm and cold battle over the west end of Montreal yesterday. Haze, low clouds and fog kept the Montreal temperature much colder than surrounding regions, but the sky was still beautiful. SB photos

What a weird weather day it was yesterday in Montreal and around the region. It truly was an epic battle between good (warm front) and evil (cold front). Well that is how I see it anyway, I do prefer the heat. When am I going to learn that warm fronts follow no rules in the St. Lawrence Valley? We found that out during the ice storm of 98. Fronts often get slowed to a crawl as they attempt to push the cold air off the valley floor. Yesterday for a spell Montreal was colder than the summit of Mt Washington, NH. Many regions in the province never experienced the warm air at all including Quebec City where the high was only 10C (the normal is 15C). Heavy rain also fell across central areas of the province with over 80mm in the Abitibi region.

That front yesterday separated unseasonably cold fall air to the north and east and record breaking summer heat to the south and west. At one point yesterday St Anicet was 29C while Montreal was 14C, we are located just 60km apart. The heat in Ontario broke numerous records including Toronto at 31C, Ottawa 29C and Kemptville 29C. As the battle continued well into the night it appeared the cold front had won with some showers and thunder around 8pm and the temperature still at 15C here in Montreal, but shortly after that the wind came out of the southwest finally and our mercury shot up to 23C at midnight, our high for the day. It remained warm overnight with temperatures in the 20's before a cool down today. We are partly sunny at this hour and 18C.