Welcome to Spring 2020 - first thunderstorms of the season possible in Montreal

It continues to be a strange and difficult time for so many around the world and now right here in Montreal and across Canada. The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus has meant lifestyle changes for all of us. I wish all my readers good health as we all continue to deal with this global Pandemic. Be safe and be good to each other.

March an be a nasty month, with historically lots of big snowstorms. This has not been the case in 2020, as only 3.4cm of snow has fallen at Trudeau Airport. On Tuesday morning, some brief steady snow put down a quick 1 to 2cm in Montreal, before temperatures warmed above freezing. (ValleyWeather Pic)

SPRING 2020
The one tiny bit of good news lately has been the weather. Spring officially arrives at 11:50 PM Thursday evening, the earliest arrival in 124 years. Thursday was very springlike in Montreal, reaching a high of 9C (48F) The entire month really has been rather easy, with all the storms travelling to our west, introducing mild air into our region. For that reason, to date, we have had only 3.4cm of snow at Trudeau Airport. The long-term average is 36.2cm. It has been a wet month, with 61mm of rain, and that tend will continue tonight and Friday. The normal rainfall for March is only 29.7mm

THUNDERSTORMS
Strong low pressure will lift across the central Great Lakes on Friday, lifting a warm front across the St. Lawrence Valley. A surge of warm air will accompany the front early Friday, along with a decent shot of steady rain. There is even the risk of a few isolated thunderstorms overnight, with an even greater risk in the afternoon along a potent cold front. Some of the storms may even reach strong to severe limits, with heavy rain and strong winds. Before the front arrives, temperatures will soar into the middle teens, possibly 16C (60F) in some locations across southern Quebec.

After a very warm day on Friday, temperatures will drop rapidly behind a potent cold front. High temperatures on Saturday in Montreal will be nearly 20 degrees colder than Friday. (AccuWeather.com)

The cold front will arrive in the afternoon, accompanied by showers and thunderstorms, as well as very strong winds, gusting from 50 to 70km/h. The front will clear the region late Friday. Temperatures will rapidly fall behind the front, down over 25 degrees from the daytime high, approaching -10C (14F) by Saturday morning. Rainfall amounts on Friday will be in the 15 to 25mm range in Montreal. North and west of the storm track, heavy snow and blowing snow is occurring, with as much as 20cm expected across far northern Ontario and central Quebec.

The weekend will be sunny and cold for southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, with daytime highs of 0C and overnight lows of -10C (14F).