Groundhog Day storm to shift north - affect Montreal

A dramatic picture via Twitter of FDNY firefighters tackling not only a major fire Saturday, January 31 in New York City, but also the elements. This is NYC, but it could be Montreal or any other city in the northeast or eastern Canada that has been suffering with extreme cold for most of January.

4pm UPDATE: Blowing Snow Advisory for Montreal.

Winter Storm Warning: Eastern Townships, Vermont & New York.

A strengthening winter storm over the US Midwest will now impact most of southern Ontario and extreme southern Quebec today and Monday. As I said Saturday morning, this system needed to be monitored closely and indeed a more northerly track is expected. Snow is now forecast today from Windsor to Toronto with 10-25cm. It will not be close enough to deal Montreal a major storm at this time, but just the same there will be snow and blowing snow by Monday morning. Today will be sunny and cold with temperatures up to -15C (5F). Expect increasing clouds tonight with snow developing by morning along the US border and expanding up to the St. Lawrence River early Monday. The snow will be accompanied by strong northeast winds up to 50km/h and frigid windchill readings. With a low tonight of -24C (-11F) and a high on Monday of only -19C (-2F) it will be cold. Windchill readings will be in the -30's Monday along with areas of blowing snow making travel challenging. The further south you go, the more snow you will encounter. Expect 5-10cm (2-4") from Montreal south to the US border, as well as eastern Ontario, 10-20cm (4-8") over northern Vermont and New York with 20-30cm (8-12") or more across southern New England. It will end late Monday followed by clearing and cold weather for Tuesday, but more snow by Wednesday

This same storm will impact regions from Minnesota to New York today into Monday with a wide range of warnings posted including a blizzard warning for northeast Illinois and Chicago. Warnings are in effect for southern Ontario as well as all of northern New York and Vermont. The storm will impact New England into Atlantic Canada on Monday. Thousands of flights across the Midwest have already been cancelled. The snow will also hit Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Monday where Phil will give his annual February 2 Groundhog Day prediction for the rest of the winter.