Warmer week ahead for southern Quebec

Clearing away the 30cm of snow at the Champlain Centre in Plattsburgh, NY on Saturday. The Valentines Day storm has cut deeper into exhausted snow removal budgets. The winter of 2013-2014 is proving costly for many parts of Canada and the US in the form of thousands of flight cancellations, power outages, heating costs and loss of income. (ValleyWX Photo)

It is another cold morning here in Montreal, currently -17C (2F) at my home, but there is some good news on the horizon. We are finally seeing hints of a pattern change after what has been one long and cold winter. Officially Montreal has not gone above 0C (32F) in the month of February. As we all know, with the exception of one week in January, most of this winter has been spent well below freezing. That is about to change this week as a warmer southwest flow of air begins to make its mark as early as this evening. After a sunny and cold day today at -10C (14F), temperatures will only drop to -14C (7F) tonight and moderate to near freezing on Tuesday. A little light snow is possible as a system slides to our south on Tuesday with accumulations of 2-5cm possible across the area including eastern Ontario. By Wednesday the warmer air will be well established with highs near plus 3C (39F) and a few showers or flurries. It will remain mild well into the weekend with sunshine Thursday followed by more showers on Friday.

Over the weekend another storm developed and passed well south and east of Montreal, this time sparring southern Quebec with just a few flurries and gusty winds. It rapidly deepened into a major blizzard affecting the New England Coast and Eastern Canada. Parts of New Brunswick and P.E.I. reported between 30 to 40cm of snow with winds gusting over 80km/h. In Newfoundland snow and freezing rain were accompanied by fierce winds, a peak gust of 170km/h was reported at Wreckhouse, with 124km/h at Cape Race.