Montreal, brace yourselves for a wild weather ride. While you may have been tempted to bust out your spring jackets this week, a major cold front is on the way to remind us winter isn’t packing up just yet.
According to Environment Canada’s latest forecast, temperatures in Montreal are expected to take a dramatic plunge this weekend from March 21 to 23. After a relatively mild Friday, with a high of 8 C, things will start turning on Saturday when the temperature peaks at 8 C before taking a sharp nosedive to 11 C overnight. By Sunday, we’ll be left with a much colder but sunnier day, with a high of just 1 C and a low of -8 C.
Other parts of Quebec are in for a more abrupt shift. Environment Canada has issued an alert for the Abitibi, Matagami and Waskaganish sectors, as a rapid drop in temperatures of more than 12 degrees in just three hours is expected.
According to MétéoMédia , this type of rapid transition is not uncommon at this time of year, when waves of spring mildness often give way to more sudden returns of cold air.
Montreal’s up-and-down weather will carry into next week, with some light snow expected again on Monday.
For those who have already stuffed their parkas in the closet or are considering removing their winter tires now that Quebec’s March 15 mandate has passed, Environment Canada meteorologist Gina Ressler advises holding off a little longer.
“Wintry weather can linger well into April. Even last year, at the beginning of April, we saw a snowfall of 26 cm in Montreal,” she noted in an interview with MTL Blog. “Montreal receives about 15 centimetres of snow [on average] in the month of April.”
As a result, Ressler suggests waiting until mid-April before making the switch to summer tires.
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