Snowy & cold weekend for Ontario & Quebec

A very cold air mass is settling into southern Quebec this morning with temperatures at their warmest currently. It is -11C here in Montreal but will drop down to -16C by this afternoon and well below -20C across the entire region tonight. The cold is being driven by gusty northwest winds up to 50km/h at times. Dangerous windchill values can be expected right into Saturday. Along the leading edge of the arctic front, snow squalls have developed this morning in portions of Ontario, making for some nasty travel north of the GTA.

Graphic from the NWS in Burlington showing 20-25cm (8-10") storm totals along the US border region. Montreal can expect 10-15cm (4-6") at the very least.

WEEKEND STORM
Clear skies tonight will allow for the coldest night of this winter season with lows expected between -23C in Montreal to the low -30's north of the city. Skies should be clear with clouds on the increase Saturday with winds developing from the northeast by late in the day. The high on Saturday will struggle to make it to -15C. Those clouds will bring snow to Montreal by late Saturday as two low pressure areas move northeast. The first from Ohio will begin to weaken as a second stronger storm develops along the east coast. That second low will move from Delaware to near Cape Cod by Sunday morning and then into Atlantic Canada. Look for the snow to continue into Sunday with 10-15cm forecast for Montreal. Further north and west a little less with more into the Townships and Vermont. It will be windy on Sunday with lots of blowing snow, as the snow will be very light and fluffy in the cold air. A winter storm watch is now posted across Vermont and New York. I expect we may see some warnings as well for extreme southern Quebec as snow totals will approach 20cm along the US border. Travel will be impacted in all regions Sunday. The snow should taper by the afternoon Sunday.