Winter hangs on in Quebec

Despite the cold, the days are getting longer. This mornings beautiful sunrise in Montreal featured a sun dog (above right), ice crystals in the high cirrus cloud reflecting the light. With the sunrise at 7:01 this morning in Montreal, and setting at 7:06 this evening, we finally have over 12 hours of daylight. (Valley Weather Photo)

 The story remains the same across southern Quebec and a large part of eastern North America, cold. Despite the Vernal Equinox being less than 48 hours away, spring is nowhere to be found. It is cold again this morning with the low at -17C at my home, well below the normal low of -6C. Again we will slowly warm today and reach -4C by late this afternoon. Tonight will not be as cold as a southwest wind develops ahead of the next low pressure area from the central plains. This low will pass across the Great Lakes and into Ontario passing north of Montreal. Clouds will increase early Wednesday followed by milder air with a rain/snow mix expected across Ontario and Quebec from midday Wednesday into early Thursday morning. The Ottawa Valley could see 5-10cm of snow while I expect amounts will be less than 5cm for Montreal as we mix and change to rain later in the day. Temperatures will warm to above freezing at 2C (36F), but that is still below normal.

Looking ahead we have a chance for more snow on Saturday, perhaps as much as 10cm in Montreal followed by another surge of cold air from Sunday into next week. It is worth mentioning that the law for having snow tires installed on your vehicle came to an end March 15. That being said, I will not be taking mine of anytime soon and you probably should not either.