Heavy snowfall brings power outages, school closures in Quebec
Hundreds of thousands of households are without power Tuesday morning across Quebec after a first night of relentless snowfall brought as much as 35 centimeters of snow to certain parts of the province.
Hydro-Québec says the snow added to the weight of wet leaves caused several tree branches to break and come into contact with the electrical grid. The public utility says it has dispatched teams to restore power as soon as possible.
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Some school boards have announced closures for the day, notably in Central Quebec, Montreal and the South Shore. The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board, Riverside School Board and Centre de services scolaire de Laval have all asked that students at specific schools stay at home.
Heavy snow fell in Montreal overnight, bringing down trees and causing power outages. (Anne-Marie Lecomte/Radio-Canada)
The areas most affected by the power outages are the Lanaudière and Montérégie regions.
As of 8 a.m., a total of more than 375,600 Hydro-Québec clients were without power.
The heaviest snowfall rates were reported in the Quebec City area and Côte-Nord. In Montreal, about 20 centimeters of snow coated the city's downtown, according to Environment Canada.
The weight of wet snow on trees that have held on to their leaves brought down several branches and power lines in Quebec Tuesday. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)
He said the weather system "was particularly complex because the temperatures were very close to 0 C as well, so a lot of the snow melted in some areas so it makes it harder to forecast like a precise amount of accumulation on the ground."
Montrealers can expect flurries through Tuesday afternoon and again on Wednesday morning before the skies give way to some rain showers.
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"Both the months of March and November are the months that in Quebec we could get everything that the weather has to offer," said Desharnais.
"November typically comes with a lot of surprises."
This article was originally published for CBC News.