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.
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Published on
April 28, 2025Effective for
April 28, 2025 to May 1, 2025Short and medium-term outlook
Sun, rain, sun and we`re done!
Monday will be a glorious sunny day in the mountains thanks to a ridge of high pressure extending from the eastern US all the way up through Labrador. The strong end-of-April sun will be cranking out 650 Watts per square metre enabling the temperature to climb up to +8C in the mountains and snow surfaces to soften at all elevations and on all aspects. A light northerly breeze will provide some cooling, but don`t be fooled, lather up with the sunscreen to avoid a spring sunburn.
Skies will be mainly clear Monday night with a low down to zero or +1C. Any new freeze crust will be thin and will melt by midday Tuesday as strong southwest winds drive the temperature back up to +9C. Cloud cover will increase steadily on Tuesday ahead of an approaching cold front. The freezing level will climb all the way up to 3000 metres so that by the time the precipitation starts Tuesday evening, it will fall as rain at all elevations with a total of 5-8 mm expected. The rather vigorous cold front will sweep through early Wednesday morning causing winds to shift to strong-extreme (60 gusting 100 km/h) northwest winds and freezing levels to plunge back to sea level. Alpine temperatures will fall to -2C Wednesday afternoon resulting in a new crust down below treeline. 3-5 centimetres of snow will be possible during the day Wednesday, but they will have a hard time accumulating given the blustery winds. Some models suggest as much as 10-20 cm on Wednesday but the ensemble mean is in the 3-8 cm range. Skies will clear and winds will ease Wednesday night allowing the mercury to drop to -5C and the crust to harden and thicken.
We`re happy to offer more sun for our last official forecast day of the 2024-25 season. May 1st will be a sunny but breezy day thanks to a new ridge of high pressure building over eastern Quebec. Alpine highs will be near near +5C while the strong northwest winds will ease in the afternoon. It will be worth taking advantage of the sun as another warm and wet system is on tap for next weekend.
Alpine Weather Consultants would like to thank all our regular readers for what was an action-packed winter. For the keeners who want more, a climatic review of the 2024-25 season can be seen here (in French). Otherwise, have a great summer!
Forecast Confidence :
La confiance est généralement bonne. Beaucoup de soleil et d’air chaud offriront des conditions de ski de printemps lundi qui se maintiendront jusqu’à mardi. Une fois que le front froid aura traversé la région mercredi, la quantité de neige est quelque peu incertaine. Comme indiqué ci-dessus, la plupart des modèles prévoient 3 à 8 cm, mais le tout-puissant modèle européen est le plus enneigé avec 15 à 20 cm, ce qui semble très peu probable compte tenu de la vitesse à laquelle le système s’éloignera.
