Quebecers will need to wrap up warm to brave a bad cold hitting the province on Friday and Saturday.
Cold weather is likely to lead to the formation of snow squalls in Abitibi-Témiscamingue on Thursday before continuing south and central in the province and affecting the entire St. Lawrence River Valley.
In addition to the extreme cold alert, Environment Canada has issued a smog warning that will affect most of Quebec by Wednesday morning, causing poor air quality, particularly in major cities.
The passage of the cold front due to an arctic air mass will cause mercury to drop sharply from Thursday night to hit miserable levels on Friday and Saturday with temperatures of -22C and a feeling of -35C in the southern areas.
This polar cold will be accompanied by sunny weather, after a variable day on Thursday with clouds and intermittent snowfall, the federal agency forecast.
In the meantime, a fine day with alternating sun and clouds, even sunny weather awaits us on Wednesday, with seasonal temperatures, especially in Quebec and Montreal where it will be -9°C.