Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Storm update

Two storms are moving into our region with snow and freezing rain. NOAA Image

A series of low pressure areas will affect southern Quebec and Ontario beginning overnight and lasting through Friday evening. Snow will arrive in southern Quebec by the end of the morning commute and will last until late in the day. It will mix at times with sleet or freezing rain especially southwest of the city towards the Ontario border. Gusty northeast winds will keep temperatures rather chilly in Montreal and blow around any snow that falls. At this point it looks like a general 5-10cm (2-4 inch) snowfall for Montreal and points south and east with up to 15cm south of the border in Vermont. Southwest of Montreal across eastern Ontario freezing rain will mix in and dominate the precipitation type from about Prescott towards Kingston. A substantial amount of ice may accumulate in those regions. Temperatures will remain steady around -10C tonight in Montreal. Roads will become snow covered and icy on Thursday, and winds will reduce visibility at times. Currently no warnings are in effect for Montreal but freezing rain warnings have been posted for Ontario from east of the GTA to Leeds and Grenville County. South of the border a winter weather advisory is in effect for Vermont and New York.

That deals with low pressure one. A second more intense system will move from Ohio down the St. Lawrence Valley on Friday passing very close to Montreal. We are looking at a decent amount of precipitation likely requiring warnings. That system will usher in very cold air changing any mixed precipitation to snow in Ontario and Quebec along with strong winds and dropping temperatures.

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