Very mild weekend in store for Montreal

A weak Alberta Clipper is giving a wide area of very light snow to southern Quebec today. Despite light snow most of the week, under 5cm has fallen in Montreal and none officially remains on the ground at Trudeau Airport as of this morning.

A series of weak low-pressure areas skirting the international border has left a few centimetres of snow across southern Quebec this week. Typically, any low pressure that comes across the Prairies is moisture-starved and drops very little snow in Montreal. We have another today that may put down 2 or 3cm of snow with a mild high of 0C (32F), and yet one more clipper low on Saturday. On Sunday, a stronger storm system will lift north of the Great Lakes, well west of Montreal, putting southern Quebec into a warm air mass. Temperatures will rise well above freezing both Sunday and Monday, up to 6C (43F) with rain expected. Strong winds will also accompany this system. After a break Tuesday, another even stronger storm will move out of the US Rockies and across the upper Midwest. It should remain well west of Montreal, giving us another round of very mild temperatures with mixed precipitation turning to rain by Wednesday morning. Strong winds in excess of 70km/h will also accompany this system.

Briefly looking beyond next week, expect much colder air to return, with a chance of a big snowstorm by the period of February 10th to 14th. There is still plenty of time and finessing of the computer models, but it looks like something significant may impact southern Quebec.