Environment Canada has issued a freezing rain warning for the Montreal area ahead of expected precipitation Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
The federal department says as much as two millimetres could fall. It's warning of potentially hazardous road conditions as a result.
In addition to Montreal and Laval, the freezing rain alert covers several areas to the east and west along the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa River valleys, including the southern parts of Quebec's Outaouais, Laurentides, Lanaudière and Maurice regions, and most of the Montérégie and Centre-du-Québec regions.
A map of southern Quebec showing in red the areas along the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers that are under a freezing rain warning on Wednesday The Cree community of Waskaganish (top left of the map) is under a separate extreme cold warning. Environment Canada
Environment Canada's 24-hour Montreal forecast shows clouds slowly encroaching on otherwise "mainly sunny" skies throughout Wednesday. It should be mostly overcast by 7 p.m. Envirocan predicts freezing rain will begin at around 11 p.m. and continue through 7 a.m. Thursday.
The forecast shows the temperature peaking at 2 C at around 5 p.m. Wednesday before dipping just below the freezing point for most of the night.
The seven-day outlook is a mixed bag, offering the best and worst of early spring, with sun and a high of 4 C on Friday, March 24, Monday, March 27, and Tuesday, March 28, and what could be a gross mix of rain, freezing rain and snow on Thursday, March 23, Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26.