More wintry weather for southern Quebec

A rather weak weather system sill managed to bring most of southern Quebec including metro Montreal, 5 to 10cm of snow on Wednesday afternoon. After a quiet start to 2021 Friday, another storm system is set to arrive Saturday with more snow for Quebec and Ontario.

Precipitation has come to an end in Montreal, with temperatures hovering around the freezing point early Thursday morning. It is just cold enough outside for a thin layer of ice on everything, as I found out the hard way leaving the house this morning. The clipper system is now well northeast of Montreal after overperforming a touch. Trudeau Airport measured 9.2cm of snow on Wednesday along with 3.2mm of a rain/freezing rain mix. Temperatures remained below freezing until late in the evening, allowing for the extra snowfall. The very light holiday/pandemic traffic allowed for a rather easy time on area highways despite the snow.

The last day of 2020 will be partly to mostly cloudy in Montreal, along with a breezy west wind of 30 to 50km/h and temperatures steady around 1C (34F). Skies will remain partly cloudy tonight, with temperatures dropping steadily through the freezing point around midnight to morning lows of -8C (18F).

New Year's Day will be the calm before the next storm system, with increasing clouds and mild highs near -2C (29F). The next system arrives Friday night from the southern US. This storm will be tricky to forecast, as most have been this fall/winter. Expect another mix of precipitation, but perhaps with more snow than rain for Montreal. I'm still ironing out the details, but precipitation won't likely begin until after 11pm New Year's Day. I will post an update later today, but at this time, Saturday looks rather messy, with perhaps more than 10cm of snow. Temperatures will remain mild however, with no frigid air in sight.