The winter storm that hit the United States and southern Ontario hard left less snow than expected in Quebec. A few more inches of flakes will accumulate by Friday morning.
Since Wednesday evening in Montreal, about 3 centimeters of snow have fallen, said Simon Legault, meteorologist for Environment Canada, at the end of the day Thursday.
In the Laurentians, Montérégie and Estrie, between 5 and 10 centimeters of snow accumulated.
A second depression could bring about 5 centimeters of additional snow overnight from Thursday to Friday, said the meteorologist. The federal agency initially forecast between 15 and 20 centimeters of snow in total from Wednesday to Friday.
Environment Canada had issued a blowing snow alert for the metropolitan area on Thursday morning. The road conditions were finally more favorable than expected due to less abundant precipitation than anticipated, estimates Mr. Legault.
The winds were there with gusts reaching 50 kilometers per hour.
Temperatures remained below seasonal norms. In Montreal and Quebec, the mercury hovered around -12 and -13 degrees Celsius for much of the day, and -23 with the wind chill.
With the exception of a few days of extreme cold at the beginning of February, the winter had been particularly mild so far, recalls the meteorologist.
Environment Canada is monitoring another low pressure system that could bring a snowfall early next week, probably Tuesday.