An Air Canada aircraft taxis at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. A major winter storm is bearing down on Ontario and Quebec, with residents being warned to reconsider travel plans as conditions could get hazardous.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A major winter storm hitting Ontario and Quebec cancelled flights, closed schools and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people Friday, with an Environment Canada meteorologist warning of a possible once-in-a-decade weather event.
The weather agency predicted strong winds, heavy snowfall and possible flash freezing, issuing winter storm warnings for the vast majority of the two provinces.
“We may only see one of these storms every five or 10 years,” said meteorologist Mitch Meredith about the breadth of the weather system. “I’ve only seen a couple of storms like this in the last 20 years.”
Environment Canada said flash freezes were likely as rain turned to heavy snow Friday in parts of southern Ontario, creating dangerous driving conditions. Ontario Provincial Police shut down Highway 401 west of London, Ont., Friday morning after reporting multiple collisions.
In Quebec, the Transport Department closed highways in the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Chaudière-Appalaches and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, while ferry service was suspended on the St-Lawrence River between Rivière-du-Loup, Que., and Saint-Siméon, Que., as well as between Quebec City and Lévis, Que.
Meanwhile, strong winds began to wreak havoc on provincial utilities.
Hydro-Québec said outages were affecting more than 240,000 customers – including more than 67,000 people in the capital region.
Hydro One, Ontario’s largest electricity utility, said roughly 57,000 customers without power around noon. Hydro Ottawa said 11,500 residents were without power, mainly because of branches downing wires.
Environment Canada predicted winds up to 100 kilometres per hour in many parts of Ontario. Those gusts could be even higher in some areas around Lake Ontario, such as Niagara and Kingston, where the agency forecasted “crippling blizzard conditions.”
“The problem with that is the temperatures (are) going down way below zero right when we’re getting power outages. So, this is a dangerous situation for people,” Meredith said.
In Quebec, many regions are expected to receive a mix of heavy snow, rain and strong winds.
At the Quebec City airport, Environment Canada reported wind gusts of nearly 100 km/h around noon. The city’s public safety department said late Friday morning that it had received more than 330 calls about dangerous structures such as downed trees, including 60 calls about tempo vehicle shelters that had blown away.
The weather agency warned that a storm surge could lead to flooding in and around the Quebec City area late Friday afternoon.
In Montreal, where conditions remained relatively tame on Friday morning, Environment Canada warned that rapidly falling temperatures later in the day could lead to frozen roads. Classes were cancelled at the city’s major school boards.
The storm upended holiday travel plans for thousands of people in Quebec and Ontario as airlines pre-emptively cancelled flights, with more disruptions expected.
Rob Milton, travelling with his wife, said his flight to Quebec was cancelled Friday morning out of Toronto’s Pearson airport, throwing a major wrench in the couple’s plans to celebrate Christmas in Quebec City.
“We had a hotel in Quebec booked; we had to cancel it. We had restaurants; we had to cancel those. We had the whole weekend planned,” he said at the airport.
Daniel Araya, who was travelling with his family from Chile to Vancouver, was stuck at the Toronto airport after his fight was delayed because of the weather. “We really are hoping for a Christmas miracle,” he said. “We spent a lot of time to get here and it will be really sad if we can’t make it to Vancouver to see my sister.”
In Montreal, Pauline Thieffry, an exchange student from Belgium who studies in Trois-Rivi̬res, Que., said she worried her flight to Brussels Рscheduled for Friday evening Рwould be cancelled. She said she hoped to make it home in time for a family dinner.
“I don’t want to cry at the airport,” she said.
WestJet announced late Thursday it was cancelling flights at airports in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The airline said 300 “proactive” flight cancellations Friday for B.C., southern Ontario and Quebec were due to the bad weather. That brought the airline’s total cancellations since Monday to 1,196, the company said.
Air Canada said Friday it had cancelled “a number of flights” in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, including all its flights out of Toronto’s downtown island airport, citing the storm, reduced airport capacity and operational constraints.
The Toronto Transit Commission took out of service 41 bus stops in hilly areas difficult to navigate in snowy and icy conditions. GO Transit, which serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, cancelled express trains and reduced train service during peak times.
In British Columbia, where extreme cold began to ease, the weather office warned that freezing rain could lead to icy accumulations of five to 25 millimetres. And with temperatures expected to rise – and more rain expected on Saturday – there is also a risk of flooding.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2022.
– With files from Beth Leighton in Vancouver.
