Fall-like weekend for Montreal followed by tropical troubles

An AP photo of heavy rain and flash flooding in coastal Alabama on Wednesday, as tropical storm Gordon moved inland. The remains of Gordon will sweep into Ontario and Quebec early next week.

A refreshingly cool air mass is in place Friday morning across southern Quebec, with some of the coolest temperatures since early June. Temperatures across the region are in the single digits, including 8C (48F) at St Anicet and 9C (49F) across the West Island of Montreal. High pressure will crest across the region today into the weekend, with nothing but sunshine. High temperatures will be either side of 20C (68F), with overnight lows around 10C (50F). Abundant sunshine and light winds, will make it a perfect weekend for anything outdoors.

Tropical Update
The remains of tropical storm Gordon, which made landfall in Mississippi earlier this week, are meandering across Arkansas early Friday morning. The system has produced very heavy rainfall between 100 and 200 mm (4 to 8 inches) along its path inland. Widespread flooding has occurred, with warnings stretching northeast into the Ohio Valley. Gordon will continue slowly moving off to the northeast over the weekend, arriving in southern Ontario and Quebec by Monday. We can expect a decent swath of rain across our region, with perhaps 25 to 50 mm (1-2 inches) falling into Tuesday. As Gordon becomes extra-tropical, winds will increase, with gusts up to 50km/h possible in the St. Lawrence Valley. The exact track of Gordon through Quebec will determine where the heaviest rain and strongest winds will occur. I am not expecting any flooding issues locally, as it has been very dry of late. We need the rain in extreme southern Quebec.

Hurricane Florence weakened to a tropical storm early Friday morning, located 955 miles southeast of Bermuda in the open waters of the Atlantic. The once powerful storm has encountered some shear, but this will be temporary. All indications are that Florence will restrengthen over the weekend and perhaps take a run at the Eastern Seaboard. It is very rare for a storm in this location to impact the east coast. Typically they will curve out to sea. However, Florence is being blocked by unusually strong high pressure to the north, the same high pressure that has been giving Montreal our hot summer. Computer models have been all over the place with the eventual track of Florence, but recent runs seem to be leaning on a potential impact to the middle Atlantic region and perhaps eastern Canada. It is way too soon to determine the impacts, if any to the east coast.

I have been tracking tropical systems since hurricane David in 1979, so I will be closely watching Florence over the weekend, and posting updates.