Winter is not over for southern Quebec and Ontario

A spring storm will produce a wide area of mixed precipitation this weekend across Ontario and Quebec, with as much as 10cm of wet snow for the Montreal region.

High pressure will result in some brief clearing across southern Quebec on Friday, along with seasonable temperatures. The fair weather will not last long, as a developing low pressure area over the lower Mississippi Valley begins to lift northward towards the central Great Lakes. 

This storm will pass across Michigan on Saturday then just north of Montreal while weakening. The result will be increasing clouds overnight, with widespread precipitation arriving on Saturday, persisting into Sunday morning. As is often the case with spring storms, we can expect a mix of precipitation, highly dependant on the time of day as well as your specific elevation. Special weather statements have been issued for regions north and west of Montreal, as well as across all of Ontario. These may be upgraded to weather warning for some locations later today.

For Montreal, we can expect rain mixed with snow, with a slushy 5-10cm possible by Sunday morning. North of the St. Lawrence River as well as in the Ottawa Valley, accumulations may be in the 15-20cm range. Some locations across southern Quebec and Ontario may also see freezing rain or sleet during the transition form snow to rain. There may even be a rumble or two of thunder for some of us late Saturday along the trailing cold front. All regions will taper off to showers or flurries on Sunday.

Strong low pressure is expected to produce areas of moderate to heavy wet snow and rain this weekend, along with winds gusting to 100km/h in places. (AccuWeather.com Map)

Rather strong northeast winds of 30 to 50km/h can be expected with the rain and snow Saturday in Montreal, making for a rather raw, unpleasant day outdoors. Temperatures will be either side of the freezing point through Saturday and into the overnight hours, warming up to 2C or 3C on Sunday under mainly cloudy skies, with continued light precipitation.

This same storm system will produce a wide area of rain and snow along with winds of up to 100km/h locally, across the lower Great Lakes into Ontario. A trailing cold front will produce strong thunderstorms from the Ohio Valley into the southeastern US.