High winds, icy conditions leave many without power in Ontario and Quebec

Extreme weather conditions were expected to continue across Canada on Thursday after a sharp cold front with high winds hit vast areas of Quebec and Ontario, knocking out power lines and leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark overnight.

More than 90,000 households and businesses in Quebec were without power as of late Thursday morning, down from a high of more than 200,000 Wednesday evening. The widespread outages forced dozens of schools to close and paralyzed the light-rail train network that connects Montreal with suburbs across the St. Lawrence River.

The Réseau Express Métropolitain was back up and running Thursday morning after a Wednesday power loss brought three of its automatic trains — including one crossing the 3.4-kilometre-long Champlain Bridge — to an unexpected halt, temporarily trapping passengers inside.

Environment Canada recorded wind gusts above 90 kilometres per hour as the cold front swept across Quebec. In several cities and towns, temperatures plunged by more than 20 degrees in just six hours.

Related: Emergency declared in Cape Breton as snowstorm leaves much of Nova Scotia paralyzed

Extreme cold, flash freezing and high wind warnings persisted across swaths of the country on Thursday. Environment Canada says most of Nova Scotia, the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick and western Newfoundland could see wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour. A flash freeze warning was in effect for most of Labrador, with temperatures plunging to -15 C.

Scores of school closures were also reported in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as the provinces contend with their own power outages. At one point, more than 30,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were without electricity, but that number quickly dropped as the winds subsided across western and central parts of the province. By 10:30 a.m. about 8,400 NB Power customers were still in the dark.

Wind chill values of between -38 and -45 were expected in northern Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan between Thursday and Friday, Environment Canada warned.

Ontario utility company Hydro One reported Thursday morning that it had restored electricity to around 115,000 customers affected by the wind storm, but around 17,000 were still without power as of 11:20 a.m. The company is expecting additional outages as high winds move across the province.

Feature image: Pedestrians brave the wind and frigid temperatures as they walk downtown Friday, February 3, 2023 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz