The cold has arrived and the worst is yet to come for many

It’s just the beginning

If you have a good old mercury thermometer outside, you will have to look down to see the level. It will be far below freezing. This will be painful in many cases, but that is to be expected. The severe cold weather is late in most regions of Quebec. The first -20° of the season are usually observed for the first time during the month of December in all cities except Rimouski which reaches this figure on average on January 6. The temperature reached -20° in only four cities. In Sept-Îles, Saguenay and Val-d’Or, this happened on December 7, while Sherbrooke had its first -20° on December 22.

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A step to take

Montreal, Gatineau, Quebec, Rimouski and Gaspé have still not seen the mercury drop below -20°. Quebec, Gatineau and Gaspé flirted with this mark, reaching temperatures of -19°, -19.5° and -18.4 respectively. In Montreal, the coldest temperature recorded since the start of winter was -17.8° on December 26, while in Rimouski, it was no colder than on December 21, with a minimum of -14.3°.

-20° everywhere

The situation will change by Tuesday morning. The polar cold entered Quebec on Sunday, and all these cities will observe a minimum temperature below -20°. The day will be cold everywhere on Monday, in fact we observed the first -40° of the season in Matagami at 7 a.m. Monday morning. But Tuesday promises to be even colder.

Felt -43

Abitibi will take on polar airs with feelings of -43 in Val-d’Or and Chibougamau Tuesday morning. Saguenay, Mont-Laurier, Rimouski, Sept-Îles, Gaspé and Quebec will all experience wind chills of -30 early Tuesday. The temperatures felt will be between -30 in Mont-Laurier and -37 in Saguenay and Sept-Îles. Montreal, Gatineau and Sherbrooke will escape -30, but barely. We forecast a feeling of -26 in Gatineau, -27 in Sherbrooke, and -29 in Montreal early Tuesday.

With the collaboration of Patrick Duplessis, meteorologist.