Thursday, January 31, 2013

Wild January comes to an end

Above & Below: Live news coverage from ABC News of the Adairsville, Georgia tornado on Wednesday.
High Wind Warning - Southern Quebec
 What a wild weather month it has been, an endless roller coaster ride of temperature, storms and wind. Montreal is sitting at 5C (41F) this morning and dropping, down form highs of 9C (48F) reached in the wee hours of the morning. We managed a record high yesterday, at 7.8C beating the old record of 5.2 set in 1988. We fell short today, the record was 10.8 also set in 1988. Rain has been falling most of the night, and the ice and snow depth have taken a beating. The rain should taper off this morning as temperatures drop and winds rapidly increase. Look for flurries most of the day along with winds out of the southwest between 70-100km/h from Cornwall down the St. Lawrence Valley towards Quebec City. Wind Warnings are in effect for today for metro Montreal and southern Quebec, as well as northern New York and Vermont.


The same storm system that affected eastern Canada with freezing rain and heavy snow in northern Ontario and Quebec and wild winds and warmth here in the south, produced very dangerous storms in the southeast US. An estimated EF2 tornado swept across the Atlanta suburb of Adairsville, Georgia flipping cars and destroying homes. Two fatalities and numerous injuries were reported with over 100 cars flipped on Interstate 75 alone. The winds and damage stretched from Florida to New York.

The storm causing all the damage will slide into southern Quebec today with the cold front clearing the US east coast  Temperature will drop all day down to -12C overnight. Toronto had a record high of 14C yesterday and they are already down to -3C this morning with light snow. The cooler air will be with us right through the weekend.

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