Despite meteorological spring - winter weather will persist across southern Quebec

Roads were in terrible shape on Tuesday, with dozens of accidents reported in the Montreal region. Between 15-20cm of snow fell on the city, at times quite heavily, reducing visibility and creating icy, snow-packed roads. More snow is expected over the coming days.

Welcome to meteorological spring. After the 15-20cm snowfall to end February, March has started off partly sunny and mild, with above freezing temperatures in Montreal. Unfortunately the mild, spring like weather will not last. We have at least two more winter storms on the horizon for Montreal, one rather weak and the second much stronger.

On Tuesday, a rather vigorous storm system overperformed across the region, with 15-20cm falling across metro Montreal. It was one of the more difficult driving days of the season, with snow covered, slushy and icy roads, and numerous accidents reported in southern Quebec and along Highway 401 in Ontario. 

Just one of the many accidents reported on the island of Montreal Tuesday. This one occurred around 5pm on Highway 20 eastbound before Saint Charles in Beaconsfield. The driver was not injured, but traffic was snarled as the rig blocked all eastbound lanes. The truck took out several trees coming to rest along the fence by a parking lot on Beaurepaire Drive (below).

High pressure has briefly built into southern Quebec for a few hours Wednesday, with sunshine and mild temperatures. The clearing will be short-lived however, with clouds thickening up already as I write. Low pressure will move down the St. Lawrence Valley Thursday, with a mix of light rain and snow. Perhaps 5cm accumulation for the Montreal region. The high temperature will be mild, around 1C (34F)

Brief clearing Thursday night, will allow for overnight lows around -12C (10F). On Friday, clouds will increase once again in response to a much stronger winter storm passing south of Montreal across New England and New York. At this time snow if forecast to begin late Friday and persist into Saturday. Similar quantities are expected as with Tuesday's storm system, in the 15-20cm range for Montreal and points south, slightly less snow is forecast north of the city and in the Ottawa Valley.

Specific details still need to be worked out for the weekend storm, so stay tuned as quantities may change