Spring temperatures slow to arrive in Montreal

Clearing highways in eastern Maryland late Wednesday afternoon. A large area of arctic high pressure has dominated the weather over southern Quebec, keeping the east coast snowstorm shown above, well to our south.
(Maryland DOT Photo)

You must forgive me for actually missing the arrival of Spring this past Tuesday, March 20 at 12:15pm. I was too busy bundling up to walk the dog, in a biting northwest wind and near-record cold temperatures. The first day of spring continued the trend of well below normal temperatures that started late last week. Daytime highs and overnight lows have been running 10 to 12 degrees colder than normal, including the first multi-day freezing weather here in Montreal since February 12th and13th. The first day of Spring, the morning low was -13.5C (8F), missing the record low for the day of -17.8C (0F), set in 1949. That was at Trudeau Airport. Other locations off island were much closer to the record low, including on L'Ile Perrot, where I recorded -17C (1F).

The silver lining to this cold weather, is that the arctic high responsible for it, has been keeping the storm systems to our south and east. The latest nor'easter only sent high clouds across southern Quebec. The system dumped more heavy wet snow from Washington D.C into New York City, with up to 30cm in some locations. The fourth nor'easter in three weeks, send the region into the usual lockdown, with thousands of flights cancelled in anticipation of the snow. Schools and businesses were closed, and rail travel suspended in the northeast corridor.

Montreal can expect partly sunny skies, with moderating temperatures through the weekend, and into next week. High temperatures may reach 10C (50F) by next Wednesday.  A few weak impulses of energy may give southern Quebec a few flurries over the weekend, but no major accumulations are forecast through next week. By late next week into Easter weekend, colder air is forecast to return, along with increasing chances of some snow to start April. Adding to the chill, is the fact that the Great Lakes still have ice covering more than 30 percent of the surface, which may result in a delayed onset of warmer weather.