Potential snowstorm on the horizon for southern Quebec

Light snow is making roads slick across southwestern Quebec on Wednesday afternoon. (ValleyWeather Photo)

The coldest air of the season has shifted off to the east of Montreal on Wednesday afternoon, after a bone-chilling 36 hours. The high on Tuesday eventually reached -15.3C for Montreal, but only around midnight as clouds increased. Until that point, we had spent the daylight hours in the -20s, with windchill values in the -30s. The low Tuesday was -24.9C (-12.8F) at Trudeau Airport, the coldest morning since January 2018.

A weak weather system will bring much milder temperatures on Wednesday, along with a few centimetres of snow. The light snow will persist into the evening hours, along with warming temperatures. Expect 3-5cm of fluffy light snow. The next 36 hours will feature milder temperatures, as warm as -3C (27F) in Montreal.

A strong cold front arrives late in the day Thursday, bringing in the arctic airmass once again for the weekend. While it will be cold, with frigid windchills, temperatures should remain a few degrees "warmer" than Tuesday's arctic chill. The highs on Friday and into the weekend will range from -12C to -15C, with overnight lows of -20C to -25C across Southern Quebec.

Confidence is growing in the potential for a major snowstorm along the eastern seaboard by Monday. Heavy snow may extend northwest from the storm center into Montreal and the St. Lawrence Valley. Stay tuned. (AccuWeather Photo)

Potential Snowstorm

Our attention will then turn to a rapidly developing winter storm, expected to move from the southern US along the Atlantic Seaboard. This storm has been on and off again according to the various forecast models, but confidence is growing that we may see a big snowstorm for our region, possibly the biggest this season. We will have to wait another day or two for the forecast potential to become a little more clear, but for now it looks like a snowy, windy Monday, with in excess of 10cm of snow for Montreal, with much more south and east of the city.