A pedestrian walks through a snow storm on Boxing Day in Toronto.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Ontario’s largest electric utility says high winds in parts of the province could cause more outages Tuesday as crews work to restore power to thousands still in the dark after a storm that pelted some regions with snow and freezing rain.
Hydro One says challenging road conditions are slowing down crews in some areas, and its outage map shows about 15,000 customers remain without power as of this morning.
More than 60,000 customers were without electricity at one point Monday.
Earlier: Freezing rain and snow hit Eastern Canada, leaving thousands without power
The utility says the outages were caused by ice accumulation on tree branches that then knocked out power lines.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s road information service reports a large stretch of highway in Northern Ontario remains closed. Ontario 511’s road conditions map shows closings for hundreds of kilometres along Highway 11 between North Bay and Hearst.
Environment Canada has issued advisories for blowing snow and snow squalls for swaths of Southwestern and Northern Ontario, with some regions facing an additional 50 centimetres of snow in the next few days.
Environment Canada says some areas northeast of Quebec City and into northern New Brunswick could see between 15 and 40 centimetres of snow along with high winds. In Quebec’s far north, blizzard conditions were expected to persist at least until midday on Thursday.
Much of Canada has been blasted with a number of weather systems over the last week, ranging from blizzards and cold snaps to freezing rain.
The weather has caused flight delays and cancellations at airports in Montréal, Halifax and elsewhere during the busy holiday travel period.