A weather system expected this weekend is expected to leave a white carpet in most regions of southern Quebec. After a week of school break marked by temperatures well above seasonal norms, winter has not said its last word, warns Environment Canada.
“It’s a system that looks like spring with a mixture of precipitation that will give a semblance of winter to several regions that currently look less like that,” summarizes Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault.
According to a special weather bulletin issued Thursday by the federal agency, precipitation will begin on Saturday in the form of rain in several regions in the west of the province, including those of Montreal, Pontiac, Laurentides, Haute-Mauricie, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Estrie, Centre-du-Québec and Bois-Francs.
The precipitation will then gradually change to snow during the night of Sunday, and even until Monday in places. “We will still have centimeters of accumulation, but really little. If we had been a little colder, we would have just had snow,” explains Simon Legault.
In the Laurentians, up to 10 cm of snow could still fall in places while it is too early to predict how much is expected in the metropolitan region, he adds.
Sticky snow
Further east, mainly snow precipitation will fall in the regions of Quebec, Saguenay and Lac-Saint-Jean, Charlevoix, Côte-Nord up to Baie-Comeau, Beauce and Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Meteorologist Simon Legault warns that “stickier” snow in places could cause certain problems.
This could cause some power outages with branches bending under the weight of the snow, but strong winds are not expected so the problems would be more local. And the quantities [de neige] expected are not extreme either.
meteorologist Simon Legault
This precipitation is expected at the end of a particularly hot school break week. “The temperatures that were reached were well above normal [de saison], almost constantly. Not just one day, but many days,” says Simon Legault, describing this situation as “abnormal.”
However, winter has not said its last word as temperatures are expected to get closer to seasonal norms, i.e. between 1 and -8 degrees Celsius, from mid-March, indicates Simon Legault.
“Let’s say that this won’t quite be the season where we equip ourselves to enjoy all the joys of winter, but we shouldn’t put away our boots either,” he says.
We will have to move the time forward this weekend
It is important to remember that the transition to Eastern Daylight Time will take place this weekend, on the night of Saturday March 9 to Sunday March 10. At 2 a.m., watches and clocks must be moved forward one hour, which will make it 3 a.m. Quebec has already announced that restaurants and bars will therefore have to stop selling alcohol at this time.