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You're gonna need a bigger shovel, MétéoMédia hints in winter forecast

Chances are good Quebec will have a white Christmas "unless rain decides to crash the party," a meteorologist says.

A series of storm-packed weather systems will hit Quebec this winter, MétéoMédia predicts.
A series of storm-packed weather systems will hit Quebec this winter, MétéoMédia predicts. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette files

Get ready for a “tough, tenacious and storm-rich” winter to settle in over Quebec, MétéoMédia warned in its long-range forecast, issued Tuesday.

“Due to a very active corridor in the St. Lawrence Valley, many storms are expected,” said MétéoMédia chief meteorologist André Monette, adding that cold weather may dominate as a series of storm-packed weather systems hit Quebec.

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Monette’s “active corridor” is a zone between the “cold air dome” in Western Canada and the “mildness” expected on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Those components will help create systems that will bring snow and heavy rains to Quebec.

“That’s where the low-pressure systems will travel. It’s really a highway for low pressure systems and there’s a risk we’ll have more of those systems than usual along the St. Lawrence Valley,” said Monette, noting that Quebecers will “have to be ready to shovel” this winter. In some regions that’s already happened.

Monette says chances are good we’ll have a white Christmas “unless rain decides to crash the party.”

The first half of winter will be cold and snowy, the second is expected to be milder and marked by warm spells.

Ontario, like Quebec, is along Monette’s low pressure “highway” and can expect cold and storms.

The Prairies should see lower-than-normal temperatures, while multiple snowstorms are expected in the Rockies.

The Maritimes, however, can expect an easier winter thanks to abnormally mild weather over the Atlantic Ocean.

MétéoMédia suggests the public pay attention to daily forecasts over the next few weeks as the weather — and road conditions — could change suddenly.

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