Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Strong winds disrupt power in Montreal

High winds toppled power lines and trees in southern Quebec on Monday.
 (CBC News)
Strong winds helped push temperatures soar to 24C (76F) in Montreal on Monday with even some low 80's creeping into the border areas with Vermont and New York. The front also brought some potent showers and thunderstorms along with strong and gusty winds. Winds were in the 70-90km/h range most of the day and have since lowered to 20-40km/h this morning. The wind took out some trees and power lines, especially south of Montreal. Hydro Quebec is reporting about 7000 customer still without power across the province this morning down from around 32,000 on Monday evening. Power outages were also reported across northern New England and eastern Ontario. As the front passed through Montreal at 3pm, around 15mm of rain fell on the city. Unfortunately it occurred during the evening commute making it a slow and difficult one. Other regions of southern Quebec had as much as 25-30mm of rain along the frontal passage. Temperatures dropped rapidly behind the front from 24C (76F) down to 16C (60F) in a matter of minutes. This morning L'Ile Perrot is a chilly 6C (43F) with Ottawa down to 3C (38F).

A spectacular double rainbow appeared behind the cold front late Monday afternoon, visible across most of the island of Montreal. (ValleyWX Photo)
The good news is that our tremendous stretch of fall weather will continue with nothing but sunshine and warming temperatures right into the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend. For the record Montreal has had rain on only four of the last 21 days, remarkable at anytime of the year but especially during typically wet fall.

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