Strong winds cut power to over 70,000 homes across southern Quebec

Hydro-Quebec crews are on the ground Friday morning, repairing damage caused by a gusty cold front that moved across southern Quebec late Thursday. At the height of the outages, more than 70,000 customers were in the dark. That number is down to just under 40,000 Friday morning. (Hydro-Quebec)

A fast moving cold front generated strong winds late Thursday afternoon, cutting power to over 70,000 Hydro-Quebec customers across the southern part of the province. This included close to 4400 in the Montreal region. Hardest hit were the Laurentians and Monteregie regions. Early Friday morning, just under 40,000 customers remained without power. A majority of the outages were caused by downed tree branches coming in contact with wires and transformers.

The strong late-summer cold front dropped temperatures from a daytime high of 29C (85F) in Montreal, down into the upper teens in a matter of minutes around 5pm. A few heavier showers and embedded thunderstorms produced a gust front, with winds briefly in the 60-100km/h range locally. Officially at Trudeau Airport, the wind gusted to 63km/h. There were no weather warnings in effect at the time of for the front. Some much need rain fell as well, with 17.8mm recorded at Trudeau Airport, while I measured 11mm at my home on Ile Perrot.

We can expect a calm, sunny Friday, with a warm high near 24C (76F). Winds will increase during the afternoon hours once again, gusting between 20-50km/h. On Saturday, an upper level low will drift over the region, with a cool, breezy and showery day expected, the high will only be 17C (63F). Sunday at this time looks fair, with some cloudy periods and perhaps an isolated afternoon sprinkle or two. The high will be 20C (68F).