Winter boots and coats should quickly replace small jackets and sneakers as snow will also fall in the south of the province in the coming days.
After just two days in which the mercury was almost 20 degrees Celsius, it’s hard to imagine the arrival of a white carpet, and yet.
“For the regions south of Lac-Saint-Jean, we can expect some snow early next week,” Simon Legault, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Thursday.
If residents of the Greater Montreal area should get through, the same cannot necessarily be said of those in the Laurentians or even Quebec.
However, the entire south of La Belle province will have to come to terms with the end of milder days on Friday, when temperatures are expected to drop and be below seasonal limits, generally around 10 degrees.
“The end of October and the beginning of November is a good time to have a little snow,” remembers the meteorologist.
But don’t panic, the snow should only stay for a few days before disappearing during the month of November, believes Mr Legault.
“We are still facing a colder period, it is possible that it will snow intermittently in the coming weeks, but I cannot say that it is the beginning of winter either,” he emphasized.
Contrasting temperatures in October
So it’s nothing out of the ordinary to have cooler weather at this time of year, which corresponds to a “normal autumn”, but the contrast is even more striking due to the heat records broken there just a few weeks ago.
“When you have both extremes in the same month, it is quite difficult to prepare mentally and physically,” the meteorologist admitted.
The temperatures of the last few days were not unusual at almost 20 degrees. For example, the record for October 25 in Quebec in 2022 is 24.6 degrees Celsius.
“It is true that it is late in the season for such high temperatures, but it is really not inconceivable that we see 20 degrees at this time of year,” Mr Legault said.