Snowy weekend for Montreal

The Thursday morning commute in Montreal was a slow one, with 5cm of snow falling in the city. Closer to 10cm occurred south of Montreal. Numerous accidents were reported by provincial police, especially off-island to the south and west. (Valley Weather Photo)

After a rather mild December and early January, winter weather has started to spread across the country in earnest. Early Friday morning, temperatures are around -20C (-4F) across southern Quebec, along with a gusty northwest wind. Windchill values are as cold as -30C. The cold air poured into the region behind low pressure, that produced 5 to 10cm of fluffy snow across southern Quebec on Thursday.

High pressure will dominate the day in Montreal, with abundant sunshine, but cold temperatures, the high will be -14C (7F). Friday night will be mostly clear and cold once again, with overnight lows of -20C. On Saturday, clouds will increase rapidly as strengthening low pressure travels down the St. Lawrence Valley. Expect snow to spread across eastern Ontario and southern Quebec during the afternoon and evening hours. The snow could be heavy at times overnight into Sunday morning. At this time, amounts will remain below warning levels for Montreal, but could approach them in Ottawa. A general 10 to 15cm is possible across southern Quebec, with as much as 25cm in eastern Ontario. Winds will be rather gusty throughout the storm, up to 50km/h. Expect areas of blowing and drifting snow. Travel will be impacted across the region. The snow should taper to flurries on Sunday. Temperatures will remain cold throughout the period and into next week.

The cold is just a small sample of what western Canada has been experiencing over the last week. Overnight lows have been in the -30s and -40s across Alberta and Saskatchewan, with windchill values as cold as the -50s. The cold has even seeped in coastal regions of British Columbia, where Vancouver has received more snow in January, 34.5cm, than Montreal 23.6cm.

It appears the colder weather is with us for a little while now, certainly to close out January and even into the early portions of February. This is in stark contrast to the above normal temperatures that have dominated Montreal weather since the start of December.