Alpine weather forecast
Avalanche Québec offers a weather forecast specifically for the Chic-Chocs. It is prepared twice a week by a professional meteorologist at Alpine Weather Consultants.
Presented by
Published on
February 20, 2025Effective for
February 21, 2025 to February 24, 2025Short and medium-term outlook
The quiet after the storm
What a storm! With over 70 cm over the Chic-Choc mountains and wind gusts up to 130 km/h, Monday’s storm is one for the record books! Several weather stations recorded new daily snowfall records including Mont-Joli with 85 cm crushing the previous record of 60 cm set February 5, 1995 as well as Gaspé coming in with 77 cm over the two days. Full storm summary here. In addition to records, the storm delivered some epic ski conditions which were inevitably accompanied by increased avalanche activity. But enough gazing at the rearview mirror, lets get into the forecast.
Suffice to say, the outlook is much quieter. A large ridge of high pressure building near the Great Lakes will extend across Quebec through Saturday providing plentiful sunshine during the day and some cloud at night. Its position will support moderate northwest winds of 30-50 km/h that will ease a bit on Saturday to 20-40 km/h. Monday’s storm shook up the Saint-Lawrence so effectively that sea-ice coverage was drastically reduced from 90% to nearly completely vanished, the only ice remaining along the immediate coastline. Despite all that available humidity, the subsidence (sinking air) under the ridge will prevent the northwest flow from generating any flurries. Temperatures will be near seasonal values in the mountains with highs near -10C and overnight lows near -15C. All that to say it will be a nice couple days to be in the mountains.
A weak cold front will reach the region Sunday morning generating light snow through the day with moderate (20-40 km/h) westerly winds that will veer to the northwest Sunday evening. All models are fairly conservative with the cold front, total precip amounts coming in at 3-6 cm. Another ridge of high pressure will build in momentarily on Monday bringing a return to sunshine. Light southerly winds will increase to strong in the afternoon as the next trough approaches. Looking further out, a series of disturbances is forecast to bring more snow through the last days of February.
Forecast Confidence :
Confidence in the forecast is high given the relatively benign pattern. Shallow cloud both Friday night and Saturday night could generate a few light flurries over the foothills but accumulations would be minor if at all. Confidence is also good that the end of February will bring yet more snow!
