Thursday, December 10, 2009

Flurries & Windy

The clean up is underway this morning slowing
morning traffic more than yesterday's storm did!


The big clean up has now begun across the Montreal area from the 28cm of snow that fell yesterday and overnight. It will take 96 hours and over 3000 pieces of equipment to remove the snow from city streets. It will also take 17 million out of the yearly snow budget to carry out the operations.

Another 3-5cm of snow can be expected today. Radar is showing narrow bands of steady snow off Lake Ontario in the traditional snow belts. These snow squalls are being driven unusually far inland by 100km/h winds and reaching far down the St. Lawrence Valley. They should begin to affect the Montreal region this morning. The heaviest snow, measured in feet, will occur in Jefferson and Oswego County in New York. The snow will fall for the next 24 to 36 hours. The same is true off the other Great Lakes. Buffalo even reported a thunderstorm with the snow during the last hour. Snow will also fall along the 401 from Brockville to Kingston.

Other totals from yesterday's storm include 20cm in Cornwall and 22cm in Ottawa. The other factor today will be the surface winds blowing out of the southwest at 40-70km/h in Montreal. They are bringing in much colder air. We have reached our high today of 1C and temperatures will begin to drop. As the snow becomes more granular, blowing snow may also become a problem especially south of the city.

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