Hard freeze on the way

Snow fell across northern Alberta on Wednesday, including here in Grand Prairie. (Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune)

A cold front is poised to cross the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley by late today ushering in the coldest air of the season. Temperatures are chilly on L'Ile Prrot this morning at 4C with a gusty wind making it feel rather raw outside. Look for partly cloudy skies today before clouds and showers increase this evening. Temperatures will reach 10C today before dipping to 5C overnight and really not moving on Friday with a strong northwest wind over 40km/h. The front has limited moisture but may give a few millimetres of rain, similar to yesterday's front the brought 5.1mm to Ile Perrot. As mentioned the coldest air since last spring will move in on Friday setting the stage for a hard freeze Friday night across the entire area. Frost and freeze conditions will affect Ontario and Quebec and south across New England even into the middle Atlantic. This will bring an end to the growing season with lows easily in the -2C range in the city and as cold as -10C north and south of the metro region. The showers tonight may end as a few flurries especially north of the city and in the Townships, Adirondacks and Green Mountains south and east of Montreal.

The same system produced snow yesterday from Alberta east into Manitoba. Around 5cm fell in Edmonton with as much as 10cm in Grand Prairie. That system is spreading snow today across northeast Ontario.