More than 100,000 Hydro-Québec customers are without electricity as large, wet snowflakes continue to fall across Quebec Sunday morning.
Around 123,000 clients were in the dark as of 10:15 a.m. — a number that’s been steadily climbing for the past few hours.
Most of the outages are in the Montérégie and Quebec City regions, followed by the Laurentians.
Hydro-Québec says heavy, sticky snow is weighing down tree branches, causing them to take out power lines.
“The damage assessment is still ongoing, so it is still too early to comment on recovery times,” the public utility said in a post to X.
It added crews are working to restore power to customers as quickly as possible.
Snowfall warnings are in effect for many areas across the province, stretching from the west to the east, where accumulations of nearly 15 centimetres can be expected. However, amounts could reach 20 to 30 centimetres in some regions.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) warns the snow, which could be mixed with rain at times, could add “considerable weight to structures and trees, making them more prone to breaking.”
The agency is urging people to consider changing any non-essential travel plans.
By 8:30 a.m., the downtown Montreal area had already received seven centimetres of snow, according to a preliminary summary released by ECCC.
Quebec City had received 10 centimetres by that time, while Trois-Rivières, Shawinigan and Rouyn-Noranda had received 18, 15 and 13, respectively.
