Montreal has completed 5% of snow-loading operation, as city braces for winds and chilly temps

There’s at least a week left in Montreal’s snow-loading operation, which began Monday morning, after the city says it’s completed about five per cent of the work.

City of Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourin says “it’s not quite our cruising speed,” but maintains the operation will take a total of “at least eight days.”

That puts the city track to finish loading the snow from back-to-back snowstorms by next Monday.

“When we said yesterday, it will take at least eight days, well we were right, it’s at least eight days. It may take a little more time. We will have a better idea as we move forward,” Sabourin told reporters Tuesday morning.

RELATED: With snow piling up, Montreal abandons clearing operation and moves into snow loading

Sabourin repeated much of the messaging from Monday’s update, including that only half of the city’s sidewalks remain cleared of snow, and that drivers need to be careful as people will likely be walking in the streets.

“I think the roads have been really clear, except for the regular sidewalks, that’s been a little bit of a learning curve,” one Montrealer said. “It’s been fun, it was expected and I think people are doing a really good job of getting around it.”

Added a tourist visiting Montreal: “The fact you had as much snow as you did, at this moment in time and we’re able to go out in this weather, I think the city handled it really well.”

As most children went back to school on Tuesday, the city is asking parents help keep them safe and walk with them. City officials are also working with Montreal police.

“The police department targets those streets leading to schools,” Sabourin said. “They will be doing surveillance. They were present this morning, they will be at the end of the day when school will be finished. They will maintain this operation as long as it’s required.”

Montrealers are urged to stay indoors and work remotely, or take public transit when they need to get around the city.

“Travelling by bus and metro, also it’s not really good as the buses are changing the stops every time,” one Montrealer told CityNews.

“I have a car actually but I find no place to park, so I am forced to take metro, buses,” said another.

Drivers are being asked not to move their vehicles — unless signs are up.

“We have 8,500 parking spots available for free at night, so that helps because when we are doing the loading operation we ask everyone to move their car,” Sabourin explained. “We have to tow as much as one car every hour in Montreal when we do loading operations.”

More information is available online at Infoneige.ca or on their app.

Montreal received 75 centimetres of snow over two snowfalls in a four-day span.

“It’s actually the highest snowfall total in a four-day period that we have on record going back to 1941,” said Gina Ressler, a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“The exceptional thing was really having these winter storms back to back like that. So we’re now actually about double the amount of snow that we normally get in February. Our average snowfall for February in Montreal is about 45 centimeters and we’re at almost double that.”

Ressler answered what’s on everyone’s minds: there no more winter storms on the horizon.

“So we should have a bit of a break to dig ourselves out of all of the snowfall for the rest of the week,” she said. “We might get a few flakes here and there, but we’re not looking at anything significant.”

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WATCH: Montrealers shouldn’t expect more snow, following two major storms

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Montreal was bracing for another cold day Tuesday, as strong northwest winds intensify and bring a chill to the region. Wind gusts reaching up to 50 km/h will combine with mainly cloudy skies and a 40 per cent chance of flurries in the morning.

With temperatures hovering around -12°C, the wind chill will make it feel closer to -25°C, making for an uncomfortably cold start to the day.

As the evening approaches, winds will shift to the west, gusting to 40 km/h, and temperatures will dip further to -14°C, with wind chills near -23°C. While the cloud cover will persist, the wind will remain a dominant feature in Montreal’s weather forecast for the next few days.

Wednesday will bring a mix of sun and cloud, but the wind will continue to blow from the west, gusting at 40 km/h. Despite the sun, temperatures will only climb to -9°C, and the wind chill will keep it feeling like -23°C in the morning and -17°C in the afternoon.

The cold and cloudy weather will persist throughout the week, with occasional flurries expected. Thursday and Friday will see high temperatures hovering around -7°C, but gusty winds will keep the chill in the air.

By the weekend, Montreal will face a 60 per cent chance of flurries on both Saturday and Sunday, with highs of -2°C.

–With files from Corinne Boyer