Strong thunderstorms cut power to thousands of Quebec homes - injure one

Lightning strikes the ground in Saint Laurent as strong afternoon thunderstorms moved across the Montreal region. An even stronger cell along a cold front produced significant damage and power outages during the evening hours. Wednesday will be the calm after the storm, with a blustery, chilly high of 12C expected. (Valley Weather Photo)

As forecast, a series of strong thunderstorms swept across southern Quebec Tuesday afternoon and evening, producing widespread damage and power outages. It was the second set of storms for the day that occurred between 7:30pm and 9pm that did the most damage. Trees and power lines were knocked down from the central portion of the Island of Montreal north into Laval and southeast including some south shore communities. The West Island and off-island communities to the west were largely spared. 

At the height of the storm, Hydro-Quebec reported nearly 150,000 customers without power. That number is down to 88,000 as of 8am Wednesday morning. This includes nearly 12,000 clients on the island of Montreal. Hydro has over 500 teams repairing the outages, but is indicating that it could take some time to restore power, as there are over 700 induvial breaks in the grid.

The storms delivered wind gusts of 87km/h at Trudeau Airport, but well over 100km/h in other parts of the region, including Laval. Several trees fell on homes and cars, and in one case critically injured a teenager in Ahuntsic, when he became pinned under a fallen tree on Grand-Allee Boulevard.

Highway 19 in Laval at the junction of Highway 440 remains closed do to fallen power lines across the road surface.

Significant damage and minor injuries were reported at the Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital after several windows were shattered by the wind.

The first severe weather of the season also produced damage and power outages in many locations across central and eastern Ontario into upstate New York.

Here on Ile Perrot, the storms missed my location, producing only gusty winds, lightning and around 1mm of rainfall. The weather was very warm and humid on Tuesday, reaching a high of 24.3C (76F) at Trudeau Airport, with 27.1C (80F) here on Ile Perrot. We have however gone form air conditioning to heat in Montreal over the last 12 hours or so, dropping from a high of 18C (65F) at midnight down to 1C (34F) early Wednesday morning. The cold air will remain for 24 hours, with a blustery, chilly high of 12C (54F) Wednesday in Montreal. 

Strong thunderstorms Tuesday evening knocked down trees and power lines, several onto homes and cars, including this one in Laval (Photo via Laval Neighbourhood Watch/Facebook)

Frost Advisory

A frost advisory is in effect through Thursday morning for most of southern Quebec, with morning lows close to the freezing point expected. Clouds will increase Thursday, with another round of showers and thunderstorms forecast by Friday, along with moderating temperatures.