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| A major thaw resulted in all our snow melting away just prior to New Year's Day. Since then, we have had almost daily flurries and snow showers that have made roads slippery at times, and accumulated a general 5-10cm of snow across southern Quebec., More light snow and cold temperatures can be expected for the upcoming week. (Valley Weather Photo) |
High pressure has been trying to nose into southern Quebec over the last few days, but a stubborn low pressure located well to the north of our region has been producing a cold northwest flow, along with occasional flurries and snow showers. The result has been cold blustery conditions of the last 48 hours, with nearly steady temperatures between -10C (14F) and -12C (10F). Winds have been between 20-40km/h, with a gust to 79km/h at Trudeau Airport on Thursday.
Most of the snow has been very light, but some isolated bands produced moderate snow briefly overnight into Sunday morning. Since January 1, between 5 and 10cm of snow has fallen across most of southern Quebec. Further west across the Great Lakes, very heavy lake effect snow fell in isolated bands, reducing visibility to zero at times, closing several highways immediately adjacent to the lakes in central and southern Ontario.
The same was true south of the border in western New York. Further south a strong winter storm was spreading snow and ice form the central plains, across the Ohio and Tennessee Valley and into the Middle Atlantic states. Freezing rain created havoc on roads across Kansas on Saturday, with hundreds of miles of interstates closed down after several multi-vehicle accidents.
In Montreal, we can expect cold temperatures to persist this week, but nothing exceptional, just January weather. Some light snow is possible on Monday evening into Tuesday morning, along with flurries through Thursday. We may briefly see the sun next Friday before another chance for snow arrives next weekend. At this time, none of the systems look particularly strong, with just a few centimetres expected.
Highs will range from -6C to -10C, with overnight lows between -10C and -17C. It is worth noting that if skies can manage to clear out and winds ease Sunday evening, some locations across the Montreal region may drop close to -20C (-4F). This would be the coldest night in the last two years. As I write, skies are clear in Montreal and the current temperature is -13C (7F).
