Superb late summer weather expected for Montreal

A flash of lightning turns night into day on Ile Perrot late last Tuesday evening. As with most thunderstorms this summer in Montreal, its bark was worse than its bite. Many storms have been weakening before hitting the city or slipping by to our north and south. Last week several strong storms impacted the Ottawa Valley with hail and even a tornado. The storms looked menacing, but dissipated west of the city. (ValleyWeather Photo)

If you love summer weather, than you'll love this forecast! After a cool start to September, summer temperatures are set to make a return to southern Quebec. High pressure will build into the region and move slowly east through the upcoming weekend. The result will be sunshine with warming temperatures. The highs will be in the upper 20s in Montreal through Sunday, with lows in the middle teens. The next chance for any precipitation will not arrive before next Monday.

Montreal continues to be rather dry this month as compared to neighbouring portions of southern Quebec and Ontario as well as New York and New England. So far in September, only 3mm of rain has fallen at Trudeau Airport. Most regions outside the metro Montreal area have received considerably more rain. It has been a very odd summer all around, with many thunderstorms splitting the city to the south and north and missing Montreal or weakening considerably before hitting the city. 

Large portions of North America have been experiencing warm temperatures, including searing heat across the southwestern US stretching northward into the southern Prairies. On Tuesday, Sacramento, California reached an all-time record high of 46.7C (116F), breaking the previous record of 114F set in July 1925. Temperatures soared into the middle 30s (90s) as far north as southern Saskatchewan.

A NOAA Satellite image of Hurricane Earl on Wednesday, located 705km south of Bermuda in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Earl may impact the waters east of Newfoundland by late in the weekend with heavy surf. (NWS/NOAA)

Tropics become active

It has been a very quite Atlantic tropical season to date, but that may be changing. On Wednesday, a tropical storm warning was posted for Bermuda, as hurricane Earl swirled in the open waters of the Atlantic, 705 km south of the island nation. Winds in Earl have increased to 85km/h and further strengthening is expected into Thursday. Earl is expected to become a major hurricane as the storm passes southeast of Bermuda. Earl is generating huge swells along the east coast, with coastal flood advisories in place for sections of the middle Atlantic states. Earl may impact the coastal waters of Atlantic Canada late this upcoming weekend.

Along the west coast, a rare northward moving hurricane is impacting portions of Baja California as far north as the US border. Hurricane Kay, with 165km/h winds, was located Wednesday afternoon 340km/h south of Baja, Mexico. Kay is expected to gradually turn northwest out to sea, but not before pushing some much needed rain into southern California and Arizona.