(Montreal) The first real snowstorm to hit southern Quebec at the end of the year ultimately left more than 30 centimeters in certain areas between Sunday and Monday, notably on the island of Montreal.
Heavy precipitation from snow weighed down by fairly mild weather put vegetation and the electricity transmission network to the test, causing a significant number of power outages.
Shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, more than 28,000 Hydro-Québec subscribers were still without electricity. Just like the day before, the regions most affected were those of Montérégie, with some 15,400 victims, and Estrie, with 10,600 customers in the dark, including some 1,600 Hydro-Sherbrooke subscribers.
At the height of the outages, Monday morning, more than 110,000 Quebecers did not have electricity at their homes, mainly in these two regions.
Hydro-Québec forecast Monday that the vast majority of customers still without power should have it back by midday on Tuesday. More than 200 Hydro-Québec teams were at work on the ground Monday evening.
According to Environment Canada, from Tuesday to Thursday, weather conditions were expected to be partly sunny, but colder.
However, the federal agency’s longer-term forecasts signal the arrival of warmer weather. For example, in Montreal, from Saturday to Monday, temperatures will cross the freezing point, night and day, and there will be rain.
For its part, the City of Montreal announced that the snow loading operation by road workers was to begin early Tuesday morning in the various boroughs.