East Coast Storm?

At left: The expected path of Tomas across Haiti by late Friday.

Could we have an east coast storm that will produce the first snowstorm of the season over Quebec?

It is the coldest morning of the season thus far across eastern Ontario and southern Quebec this morning. Ile Perrot was at -4C, while the airport was -2C. Further southwest St Anicet was -5C and Kemptville was -5C as well. In New York temperatures were even colder with -6C at Plattsburgh. Skies were clear and will remain so all day today with milder temperatures, near 8C and light winds. This will be the best weather day until Sunday.

Computer models have been all over the place with our weekend forecast from the start of the week. A complicated series of low pressure areas at the surface and aloft will begin to take shape along the east coast of the US. They will lift north into New England by early Friday. This will set the stage for an appreciable amount of precipitation over out area along with cool temperatures. The precipitation will start as rain on Thursday but will likely become a mix of rain and snow into Friday. It is too soon to predict amounts, but it looks like enough snow to measure, especially north of Montreal and Quebec City.

TOMAS: We have a little good news to report as far as Tomas goes. The once hurricane has been downgraded at this time to a tropical depression. The system is meandering south of Haiti and Jamaica with minimal winds according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters still expect the storm to regain strength as early as this evening and move from southwest to northeast across Haiti by weeks end. Regardless of the wind, this storm will bring a tremendous amount of rain to Haiti with the potential for flooding and mudslides. We need to watch this very closely.