Up to 100 millimeters of rain fell on several regions of Quebec, where records for precipitation, but also for heat, were quickly reached on Monday.
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Between 30 and 100 millimeters more are expected in the province during the day.
Around 3:30 p.m., the Montreal region had already received 77 millimeters of rain, which should calm down during the evening, according to Michèle Fleury, meteorologist at Environment Canada.
This is also a rain record for a month of December in the metropolis, since the previous one was 51.2 mm on December 11, 2003.
“It’s getting a lot lighter for the south of the province, there are only a few millimeters left to fall, it’s coming to an end,” she said in the middle of the afternoon.
The Charlevoix massif, a popular destination for skiers, replaced snow with rain after having already received 113.5 mm of water during the day.
Even if the quantities were lower, the rest of Quebec was not left out with 66 mm in L’Assomption, 64 mm in Trois-Rivières and 41 mm in Drummondville.
Quebec and Trois-Rivières also broke rain records, which were respectively 45.7 mm on December 17, 2000 and 50 mm on December 11, 2003.
“Path [des précipitations] goes from the Montreal region to Labrador. It is moving towards the northeast and will more significantly affect eastern Quebec during the day, until tomorrow morning,” she explained to the QMI Agency.
More amounts of rain are still expected in the evening for the North Shore, where up to 80 mm of water is forecast, and the Gaspésie.
Matane and Natashquan are subject to strong to violent wind warnings, while gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour are forecast from this evening to Tuesday morning.
A little white carpet for Christmas
In terms of temperatures, heat records were also reached at the start of the week. This is particularly the case in Sherbrooke, where the old record of 12 degrees in 1921 was beaten by one degree for December 18.
It was also hot in Quebec for December 18, since the new record was set at 9 degrees, compared to 4 degrees in 1996.
Contrary to forecasts, Montreal will have remained tied with its old record of 9 degrees in 1921.
“The seasonal normal should be maximum -3 degrees, and minimum -12 degrees,” recalled Ms. Fleury.
The sun should return to most areas on Wednesday, and temperatures will begin to dip below zero.
“We will slowly return to normal […] temperatures will be colder at the end of December, beginning of January,” underlined Ms. Fleury.
According to her, it is possible that snow will appear “around December 24 and 25”, but in small quantities. Enough to have “a little white carpet”, but not for a snowman.