More snow to come in Montreal this weekend following first major snowstorm

As Montreal battles its first major snowstorm of the season, the city is not out of the woods in the next few days, as more snow is expected.

Gina Ressler, meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said by early afternoon on Thursday, 30 centimetres of snow had already fallen.

The hardest hit in Quebec is Gatineau, which saw upwards of 35 centimetres.

“This is the first real snowstorm we’ve had this winter,” Ressler said.

“We’ve had some fairly numerous small snowfalls so far in January and February, but we actually haven’t had a snowfall in Montreal above about 10 centimetres so far,” she added.

Ressler said that Thursday’s storm brought the biggest snowfall of the winter months yet. “It might even be the biggest snowfall we’ve had in a couple of years in terms of a one-day snowfall event,” she said.

The good news is that snowfall is expected to ease up on Thursday evening, according to ECCC.

“We’re not expecting too much more in terms of snowfall accumulations, but temperatures will be dropping tonight behind the cold front, as well as some strong winds, so some of that snow could be blowing around with the strong winds tonight and reducing visibility a little bit,” Ressler said.

“Then we have some cold air in place for Friday into Saturday, but we are watching another potential snowstorm for Sunday, so we could be seeing some more snowfall on top of what we’ve seen today, so that is definitely something that we are monitoring.”

ECCC is not yet able to say how much snow is expected to come down this weekend.

“It still depends on the track of this snowfall, really who’s going to be in the bullseye of the heaviest snow,” said Ressler.

“It could be a 10 centimetre snow, it could be even another 25 centimetre snow. Things could still change, but it is something to watch out for.”