Montreal winter storms break four-day snowfall record
Posted February 17, 2025 3:51 pm.
Last Updated February 17, 2025 4:11 pm.
Two storms in Montreal in just a few days and the city broke a record for four-day snowfall totals – the highest since records started being kept in 1941.
“When you look at the individual storms, we didn’t really break any records. But when you combine them, having these two storms come at like one right after the other, that was the thing that was very exceptional,” said Gina Ressler, meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
About 73 centimeters of snow fell up until Sunday – with another two centimeters coming on Monday morning – in total, about 75 centimeters of snow over five days in Montreal.
“Pretty much the biggest snowstorm in a while in the city,” added Ressler. “You know, it’s not uncommon to have these big snowstorms, but to have one right after the other with not much time in between, to clear the roads and everything like that – that’s the thing that was a very exceptional. And as well, we had blizzard conditions on Sunday. That is also fairly uncommon for Montreal. So definitely an exceptional situation.”
The blizzard warning issued on Sunday had to do with the winds and the visibility. There were strong winds across Montreal and the visibility 400 meters or less for much of the afternoon.
“That creates very dangerous conditions when you’re out on the roads. So that’s why we had the blizzard warning,’ explained Ressler. “Normally we don’t see these types of blizzard conditions in Montreal – in southern Quebec – but we had a real blizzard on Sunday.”
Monday brought blowing snow as well, but the Montreal-area is not expecting another big storm on the heels of this one.
“Winds will gradually diminish through Tuesday into Wednesday – and we’re in a bit of a calm period for the rest of the week into the weekend,” added Ressler. “So hopefully some time where we can all dig ourselves out of the snow.”
