Monday, May 27, 2013

Hot & humid weather to return to Montreal

The higher elevations of Vermont, NY and the Townships received a late May snowstorm on Saturday. The photo above was taken at Whiteface Mountain, NY. (NWS Burlington)
It was a downright cold weekend for May, more like October. The temperature only made it to 10C (50F) on Saturday with abundant rainfall and a cold northerly wind all day in Montreal. Sunday was only a touch better, remaining cold and wet most of the day and only recovering by 5pm or so. The temperature managed to reach 13C. It has been a wet period for sure with over 50mm (2 inches) of rain in the last week here on L'Ile Perrot. Amounts were much greater across Vermont with portions of Chittenden, Lamoille and Orleans Counties reporting between 7 and 9 inches of rain in the last week (175-225mm). The culprit this weekend was a rather strong and cold late season coastal storm that produced the nasty weather as well as some coastal flooding in Maine and New Hampshire. Another part of this storm was snow! A rare Memorial Weekend snowfall occurred across the higher elevations of Vermont, New Hampshire and southern Quebec with between 10-20cm (6-8 inches) reported in places like Jay Peak and Mount Mansfield.

Saturday morning weather map. The swirling coastal storm maintained a northerly flow with lots of cold air and precipitation. 
With that storm out of the way high pressure will give us sunshine and warmer temperatures today, up to 19C. A warm front will then move across the region late Tuesday into Wednesday with a few showers and thunderstorms. That front will open the door to the warmest air of the season so far with hot and humid weather expected to end the week and into the weekend. Temperatures will reach and likely exceed 30C in Montreal by Thursday. What a difference just a few days can make.

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