Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Warnings issued for southern Quebec

I-44 in Oklahoma today. The National Guard was called out to rescue trapped drivers. Just two days ago the mercury was at 75F, today they dropped down to 9F with over 1 foot of snow and 60mph winds.

A major winter storm over the Midwest US tonight continues to push snow northeast into Ontario. At 8pm the snow had moved into the Detroit/Windsor area and was advancing up the 401 corridor towards the GTA. Heavy snow and strong winds will overspread the entire region and arrive in Montreal just in time for the morning rush hour. Winter Storm Warnings are in effect for all of southern Ontario into eastern Ontario as well as extreme southern Quebec including L'Ile Perrot where I live, but not Montreal island. Really we are splitting hairs, because the gusty northeast winds in the valley will reach speeds of 60km/h and produce near zero visibilities region wide including the Montreal metro region tomorrow, warning or not. Travel will become very poor overnight with the bulk of the snow, upwards of 15-20cm falling on Montreal during the daylight hours Wednesday. Near blizzard conditions are expected in Toronto and most of the 401 corridor overnight. The OPP are advising you to stay home if you can.

I was looking at some of the observations from the southern plains and Midwest. Winds were gusting over 60 mph in some locals with blinding snow and even thunder across Missouri. South of the snow it has been freezing rain in a swath from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex north and east towards New York City. The ice could accumulate more than 1/2 inch bringing down power lines and trees. This is a very dangerous storm and travel is not advised out of the city to the south or west tomorrow.

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