A serious setback to Spring 2013 in Montreal

BBQ season is temporarily on hold. ValleyWX

Plowing in Montreal on Tuesday.

Photograph by: Marie-France Coallier, The Gazette

Spring arrived at 7:02am this morning, took one look around Montreal and left. What a winter 2012/2013 has turned out to be. Already this winter we managed to beat the 1971 daily record and now we have just had a top 5 March storm on the very last day of winter. The snow started early yesterday morning and when all was said and done in the wee hours of this morning, between 33 and 40cm (13-16 inches) of snow had fallen across the Montreal metro area. I measured 33cm at 6pm yesterday (photo on the left) here on L'Ile Perrot and another 3-5cm has fallen overnight. Light snow continues this morning with cold temperatures around -6C. Light precipitation will prevail for the next couple of days as a result of a blocking pattern over the north Atlantic with temperatures below normal around -1C. Any snow accumulations will be light with just 1-3cm expected over the next 24 hours.

One factor that may become a problem for area highways on Thursday, is an increase in the wind. Gusts of to 50km/h are possible on Thursday and this could cause all the snow to start blowing around. We will have to see how that develops. In the meantime spring is on hold as we have mountains and mountains of snow across the city, and we need to have some serious melting! Oh by the way, one year ago today Montreal recorded one of  its warmest March temperatures on record as the mercury soared to 24C (76F).