Cold start to April in Montreal

Strong northwest winds behind an arctic front produced gust to 76km/h in Montreal late Monday and have driven in much colder air across southern Quebec. Monday started around 5C but by the supper hour it was below freezing with flurries and strong winds. The record low for April 2 is -8C in Montreal, we are currently at -7C at the airport. Gusty winds in the 35km/h range are producing windchill values between -9C -15C. Skies for the time being are clear here on L'Ile Perrot but deep cyclonic moisture and the daytime sun should rapidly produce cloud cover along with snow showers. Look for a dusting in the city to as much as a few centimetres across the higher elevations of the Laurentians and Townships and into New England and New York. Keep this in mind if your travels take you down Autotoute 10 or Interstates 89 & 91.

Temperatures will remain chilly today with highs no better than -3C or about 10 degrees below normal. It will remain cold tonight dropping to -6C and only up to -1C on Wednesday  Milder air should return by Thursday with temperatures back to a near normal high of 7C. Winds will remain gusty today across the St. Lawrence Valley in the 40-60km/h range.

The Detroit Tigers Cecil Fielder tries to warm up before yesterdays game in Minnesota against the Twins. It was only 35F (2C) at game time. The Tigers beat the Twins 4-2. (AP Photo)

Cold MLB Opening Day
The boys of summer are back, thankfully, as major league baseball regular season action got underway on Monday. My Red Sox beat the dreaded Yankees 8-2 but the real story across many ballparks was the near record cold. It was the second coldest opening day on record in Minneapolis for the Twins as well as the Brewers in Milwaukee. Temperatures at game time were around 35F about 15 degrees below normal, add in the wind and it was below freezing at many venues. We will have a slow warming trend this week so the weekend games should be much warmer!