Coldest air in nearly 20 years moving in to Montreal tonight

(File photo) THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

After two rounds of accumulating snow this week in Montreal, temperatures are now expected to plummet and Montreal could see its coldest reading in years.

The overnight low Thursday night in Montreal is expected to drop to -29 degrees Celsius. That would be a new record for Jan. 21, beating the old record of -27.5 C in 2005.

The last time Montreal saw a temperature that cold was 18 years ago. On Jan. 15, 2004 the low dropped to -29.1 C.

And we could see a repeat performance on Friday night as the low once again is expected to drop to -29 C. That would also set a new record for Jan. 22. (The record low is -28.3 C in 1976.)

It's expected to be even colder in the nation's capital with the low dropping into the -30s.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued extreme cold warnings for Ottawa.

January 2022 has been one of the coldest we’ve seen in a few years. So far, in the first 20 days of the month, the mercury has dropped into the -20s a total of eight times. Last January, Montreal saw the mercury drop below -20 C only once. And in January 2020 the temperature never dropped below -20 C. January 2018 saw the phenomenon occur a total of eight times.

Montreal is expected to see temperatures drop into the -20s at least a handful of times through the end of the month as temperatures stay below average.