After cold, snowy Christmas, temperatures to rise across southern Quebec for new year

MONTREAL — After a cold, snowy Christmas, southern Quebec is expected to get hit by freezing rain over the weekend before temperatures rise further to usher in the new year.

A major weather system from the southern United States will bring a period of freezing rain or drizzle starting Saturday evening in the St. Lawrence Valley, from the Montreal area northeast to Trois-Rivières and Quebec City, Environment Canada says.

After a Christmas period during which temperatures were as cold as -17 C in the Montreal area — where more than 10 centimetres of snow fell — the weather will warm over the next few days to hit 8 C on Monday and 4 C for New Year’s Eve.

“We have this really cold air mass in place over Quebec for the last few days, and now we’re starting to get warmer air start to push in from the south, but most surfaces are still quite cold, so for this reason we’re looking at the risk of freezing rain or even some freezing drizzle in some places,” meteorologist Gina Ressler said Friday.

Although the freezing rain over the weekend may only amount to a few millimetres, it can be enough to turn surfaces slick and dangerous, Ressler said. Other parts of the province, including Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Outaouais and the Laurentians are also expected to receive freezing rain.

“The good news is it won’t last long because we do have another weather system that’s coming in for Sunday night into Monday that will push temperatures above zero,” she said.

Ressler said the warm temperatures expected in southern Quebec are “abnormally” warm for this time of year in December, “but it’s not uncommon to have these kinds of roller-coaster temperatures in the winter as storm systems move in and out.”

On Monday, most of southern Quebec is forecast to receive between 20 to 30 mm of rain, possibly as high as 50 mm locally, and together with thawing snow, the rainfall may cause minor flooding in some waterways.

Meanwhile, Montreal was under a smog warning on Friday for the second consecutive day, with high concentrations of pollutants bringing poor air quality. “These conditions will persist overnight tonight,” the agency said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press