After the storm, quiet weather for Montreal until Thursday

The heavy wet snow weighed down many branches forcing them to rest on power lines. Scattered power outages were reported in southwestern Quebec, with widespread outages across New England and New York. As of Sunday morning, a little over 3200 clients remain without power in the province. Meanwhile in Maine and New Hampshire, close to 70,000 remain without electricity. (Valley Weather Photo)

The snow has finally stopped across southwestern Quebec after a good 36 hours. Storm totals were quite impressive in the St. Lawrence Valley, with 32cm in Montreal and 35cm in Cornwall. Ottawa was the winner, with 38cm. The snow created the usual problems on area highways, with numerous accidents reported. Scattered power outages were reported in Quebec and Ontario, with ten of thousands in the dark from New York to Maine due to the weight of the heavy wet snow.

Temperatures remain very mild Sunday morning, at -1C (30F) in Montreal. Our range has been very small over the last several days, either side of 0C. The weather will be calm on Sunday, with steady temperatures and light winds. High pressure will move into southern Quebec this week, with partly cloudy skies, isolated flurries and fairly mild temperatures for December.

Plows across southern Quebec were busy Friday and Saturday, as the first snowstorm of the season impacted the region. Over 30cm of snow fell in Montreal and the southwestern suburbs. (JKO Photo)

By Thursday, a strong storm system will be developing across the central US in response to a surge of arctic air moving southward. This storm has the potential to be rather large and strong, with far reaching effects across the Great Lakes and east coast during a busy travel period. As this time it looks like a mix of snow and rain for Montreal, with very windy conditions and a rapid freeze on the back side of the storm Friday night into Christmas Eve. Temperatures will swing from well above freezing Friday to well below by early Saturday morning. There are many details to work out, so stay tuned, especially if you have travel plans late this week.