One Storm System, a Smorgasbord of Weather

Like the weather, this snowman is upside down! Kelly Gillin created this one in the rain, in Somerville NB!

A wild midwinter storm that tracked up the Ohio Valley, into the St Lawrence Valley then headed for Labrador, contributed to an incredible range of weather conditions.  At 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, the long wave trough was triggering weather from Cuba to Newfoundland!

The cold side of the system dumped 51 cm of snow on our Nation’s Capital; a one day record for Ottawa.  NW winds gusted to 60 km/h causing whiteout conditions throughout eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

On the warm side of the system, it was much more like spring.  Afternoon temperatures moved into double digits and half century old records fell as temperatures continued to climb into the night. Greenwood NS won “hot spot honours” when the temperature peaked at a balmy 13 degrees at 4 pm.

Waves of heavy rain pulsed across the Maritimes with unofficial totals coming in between 30 and 50 mm.   All that rain, combined with record warm temperatures, to produce very high water levels and some localized flooding.

Along the rain/snow divide, the Montreal to Quebec City corridor received more than 6 hours of freezing rain. That same line produced freezing rain from Quebec City to New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula.

The pressure difference between the cold air and the record warm air mass created a strong pressure gradient and that created quite a blow.  Warm southerly winds gusted between 60 and 80 km/h overnight.  At 11pm, a wind gust of 114 km/h was clocked on Brier Island NS.  That’s just shy of a hurricane force gust!

As of 11 am today, the storm sits over west-central Labrador; wind, rain, snow and flash freeze warnings are in effect.

Nice to see that Mother Nature did not play favourites with this one!

Chief Meteorologist

Cindy Day