Big warm-up this week

It is a very cold Monday morning across southern Quebec. I am rather surprised at just how cold it is here at my home on L'Ile Perrot, I am currently showing -17C with a windchill of -23C. Skies cleared out overnight allowing for a rapid drop in temperatures. Most areas of southern Quebec and eastern Ontario still have snow cover so this helps generate the colder readings. We are in for a major warming trend this week that will see big time melting of the snow pack with spring definitely in the air. Temperatures will be chilly today no better than -8C. We are looking at another cold night tonight around -15C for lows in the area. Tuesday will be much milder with temperatures beginning a sharp rise on southwest winds that will see highs near 0C and all the way up to plus 10 or 11C (50 to 52F) on Wednesday and Thursday. A few showers are possible later in the week, but otherwise no major precipitation is forecast at this time. While in normal winters I would still believe we have a snowfall or two left to go this early in March, this year has been so strange, this could likely be it for winter 2011/2012.