First widespread snowstorm on the horizon for Montreal

Many regions outside of Montreal, across Quebec, Ontario and New England, awoke to snow on Tuesday morning. (NHDOT Photo)

Brutal cold will great those heading out in Montreal today, with the 7am temperature at Trudeau Airport of -11C (12F), and a windchill of -20C (-4F). St Agathe north of Montreal was -16C (4F) this morning. The unseasonable cold will prevail through the end of the week, and will be joined by the first widespread snowstorm of the season for southern Quebec.

On Tuesday, many regions outside Montreal recorded the first snow of the season, with 5 to 15cm falling mainly north and west of the city, including Laval. Here on L'Ile Perrot and at Trudeau Airport, it was mainly a rain event, with just a few wet flurries mixed in. A strong cold front crossed the region late Tuesday, ushering in our current polar air mass. The low this morning in Montreal is just 1 degree shy of the record of -11.7C set in 1971. If we fail to reach -6C today, it will be the coldest November 14 since 1905, when the high was only -6.1C (21F). The cold is being accompanied by stiff northwest winds of 30-50km/h in Montreal, producing dangerous windchill values for November.

Montreal can expect the first snowstorm of the season Friday, with 10-15cm likely falling across southern Quebec. (AccuWeather.com)

Friday Snowstorm
High pressure will dominate the weather through Thursday, with cold temperatures and partly cloudy skies. Daytime highs will struggle to reach -5C (23F), with a morning low Thursday of -11C (12F). Overnight Thursday, low pressure is expected to develop off the middle Atlantic coast and move northeast towards southern New England. Precipitation should overspread southern Quebec by Friday morning, with snow expected. The snow will be light but steady on Friday, with early estimates of 10 to 15cm for metro Montreal. I expect this will be all snow with no mixing forecast in Montreal, with temperatures remaining below freezing for the event. Widespread snow is also forecast for eastern Ontario, though with lesser amounts of 5 to 10cm expected. Snow will also fall south and east of Montreal across the Townships and northern New England. Travel will be very poor on Friday.

The low is forecast to deepen and move into Nova Scotia late Friday. Behind the storm, more cold air is forecast in Quebec and Ontario, prevailing into next week, with additional chance for more snow.