Strong winds cut power to over 40,000 Quebec homes

A tree lies across Rue St. Denis in Montreal on Monday evening after powerful winds gusted over 100km/h. Over 40,000 Hydro-Quebec customers lost power as a result of the strong winds. Most were back online by the end of the day Tuesday. (Radio-Canada Photo)

A potent cold front swept across southern Quebec Monday afternoon, ushering in a few hours of strong west winds. Wind gusts reached 102km/h at Trudeau Airport during the evening hours Monday, with 96km/h recorded at Saint Hubert on the South Shore. The peak gust in Quebec was 124km/h at Riviere-La-Madeleine. In Ontario, winds gusted to 100km/h at Cove Island, with 81km/h in Toronto. The 102km/h wind gust at Trudeau Airport was very close to the all-time April record of 106km/h set in 1975.

All over Ontario and Quebec, the strong winds brought down tree branches and power lines. At the peak of the outages on Monday night, Hydro-Quebec reported over 40,000 customers without power. That amount was down to under 10,000 by Tuesday morning and near 3000 by the afternoon. Other minor structural damage was also reported across the city of Montreal.

The strong winds were preceded by heavy rainfall, with a record breaking 28.4mm falling at Trudeau Airport. The previous 24-hour daily record for April 13 was 23.6mm set in 2004. I measured 32.6mm on Ile Perrot. The rain was especially heavy along a late afternoon cold front, with some minor flooding observed.