Historic heat records in southern Quebec


Southern Quebec recorded abnormally hot temperatures on Thursday, which allowed several cities, including Montreal, to smash records.

In the middle of the afternoon Thursday, the mercury reached 15°C in Montreal. “That is the hottest temperature for March 17 ever recorded since 1872,” said meteorologist Gilles Brien in an interview with the QMI Agency.

Record temperatures were recorded almost everywhere in southern Quebec, such as in Sherbrooke, which reached 17 ° C around 3 p.m., “a 1927 record”, according to Mr. Brien, who speaks of “historic temperatures”.

“It’s been three months since we’ve experienced heat like this,” he recalled, pointing out that on December 15, the mercury in Montreal exceeded 15°C.

If it is normal to have “heat surges” in March, Gilles Brien stresses, however, that these should normally reach 3 ° C. “We are talking about a maximum of 15 or 16°C. (…) The 30-year average in Montreal for March 17 is 2.3°C”.

For the meteorologist, “it’s a bit like a signature of climate change”.

“The records that we have more and more are not beaten by half a degree or by a few tenths of a degree, here we are talking about 5,6,7 degrees. That’s what’s worrying,” he said.

A rather chilly spring

To try to have a portrait of spring, however, we must not rely on Thursday. Forecasts indicate that spring will be “rather chilly” with “colder than normal” temperatures.

If Thursday will melt the snow “as politicians promise in the sun”, the return of colder temperatures will “limit the risk of flooding this year”, according to Gilles Brien, who underlines that there are still significant depths of snow in several sectors.

“We still had 59 centimeters on the ground [mercredi] in Quebec, and 14 centimeters in Montreal.”

In addition, the arrival of spring risks being spoiled on Sunday by a depression coming from Colorado which should bring a lot of rain, between 20 and 30 millimeters in southern Quebec.

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Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com

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