One more week of the arctic chill for Ontario & Quebec

While L'Ile Perrot and the rest of metro Montreal have only had between 50-60cm (20-24") of snow this month, the extreme cold has meant is it all still around. The relentless smaller snowfalls and wind have kept roads in poor condition and snowplow operators working non-stop. (ValleyWX Photo)

Montreal managed a high of -4C (25F) on Sunday afternoon, the warmest in some time, but still short of the freezing point. That makes 34 days since we were last above freezing in this city, a trend that will last all this week. After 5-10cm of snow over the weekend, including a decent squall along the cold front late last evening, temperatures have dropped rapidly this morning. It is currently -19C (-2F) on L'Ile Perrot with northwest winds in excess of 40km/h. This has placed windchill readings once again in the minus 30's across southern Quebec. The cold wind chills extend into Ontario and New York as well as New England prompting widespread extreme cold and windchill warnings. The criteria in Quebec is -40C, so no warnings are posted here. This makes no difference at all, it is still stupid cold once again!

The cold will last all week with a forecast high of only -18C (0F) today for Montreal, dropping into the mid minus 20's overnight region wide. Tuesday clouds will increase as a weak clipper moves in from western Canada. That will moderate temperatures slightly, rising up to between -7C and -9C (15 to 20F) for the balance of the week. While that is still well below normal, it is a vast improvement over the rest of this month. Lows will be in the -15 to -17C (2 to 5F) range. As far as snowfall goes, we are expecting at 2-5cm late Tuesday and Wednesday before high pressure returns on Thursday. Skies will remain clear into next weekend with moderating temperatures. At this time the start of March looks stormy, but that is still a week away. As we have seen this winter, allot can happen in that time frame.