Storm sweeps east

Snow on the Pumpkin in Regina today. (Global)

That record breaking low pressure area is located over northern Wisconsin this evening and is expected to lift into northwest Ontario overnight. The storm bombed out deepening by 24mb in 24 hours Monday into today. The most recent pressure was an unbelievable 957mb making it one of the strongest storms ever over this portion of the continent.

Snow continues to fall on the backside of the system over Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As of 7pm, 5-10cm had fallen in the Regina and Moose Jaw area with 15cm or more from Weyburn north to Yorkton and east to the Manitoba border. The snow is being driven around by strong winds producing whiteout conditions on area highways. Weyburn reported a gust to 76km/h this afternoon, and most other areas have been in the 50-70km/h range making it nearly a blizzard. South of the border heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes produced widespread damage and power outages from the Dakotas eastward across Minnesota and Wisconsin and into Michigan. Winds gusted to hurricane force in Chicago causing massive delays at O'Hare. The winds also cut power to nearly 200,000 homes across the Midwest.

In Ontario heavy rain and strong winds moved across the southwest and the GTA this afternoon and are now swinging into eastern Ontario along the trailing cold front. It was very warm in Ontario today and along the Quebec border with New York, reaching over 20C. The warm air could never chase the fog, clouds and northeast winds out of Montreal, and we remained around 10C and have slipped to 9C with rain and fog at 8pm. The cold front will move across Montreal island overnight with showers and thunderstorms and gusty winds.