Southern Quebec braces for a wet Thanksgiving weekend
CBC
October kicked off with unseasonably warm weather, but that's going to change this weekend throughout southern Quebec with a sudden drop in temperatures and a precipitation deluge.
In the Montreal region, heavy rain is expected late Friday night and it will intensify on Saturday, according to a special weather statement by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
The rain will persist into Sunday but will be lighter, ECCC says.
Rainfall amounts could range from 50 to 80 millimetres this weekend with the heaviest amounts falling on Saturday.
Water accumulation could be significant on roads and in low-lying areas. People are encouraged to monitor alerts and forecasts made by ECCC.
The weather statement covers a vast section of southern Quebec, from the border with the U.S. to as north as the Péribonka area, west to the Gouin Reservoir, east to Victoriaville.
Heavy rains and strong winds are expected in the Maritime provinces as tropical storm Philippe makes its way toward Canadian waters.
As far as Quebec is concerned, it will be felt hardest to the east, though the entire province will experience colder air, said ECCC meteorologist Jean-Philippe Bégin.
This, after Quebec experienced record-breaking temperatures this week: It was 29.3 C on Wednesday, the highest it's been in 80 years.
Bégin said the first half of October 2021 was the warmest on record, but we won't be breaking that record this year.
"In fact, we will be far from it," he said, and that's because of the temperature drop predicted for next week.
With climate change, more extreme weather can be expected whenever there are unseasonably warm spells, he said. That doesn't mean there will be more warm spells, but these warm spells will be accompanied by more extreme weather, like record-breaking temperatures.
The global weather pattern El Niño has returned for the first time in seven years, the World Meteorological Organization announced this summer, setting the stage for further extreme weather and soaring temperatures.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern associated with warming of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.