Blowing snow advisory in effect for Christmas in Montreal, thousands remain without power

Those in the Greater Montreal Area waking up early Christmas morning may want to just stay by the tree indoors and look out the window as a blowing snow advisory is in effect. The weather advisory comes as thousands remain without power.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says winds will gust up to 70 km/h and be combined with at times heavy flurries and will produce near zero visibility.

"Watch for snowdrifts due to blowing snow on roads, especially in exposed areas," ECCC said. "Travel is expected to be hazardous due to reduced visibility in some locations. Visibility may be significantly and suddenly reduced to near zero."

Temperatures in Montreal are around -7 Celsius, but with the wind it will feel more like -18.

The wind is forecast to end in the evening.

Blowing snow advisories are also in effect for Drummondville-Bois-Francs, Lachute-Saint-Jerome, Lanaudiere, the Lower Laurentians, Mauricie, Mont-Tremblant Park, Quebec City, Richelieu Valley-Sant Hyacinthe, Upper Gatineau and Vaudreuil-Soulanges-Huntingdon.

There is a winter storm warning in effect for Waskaganish in Quebec.

POWER OUTAGES

As of 2 p.m. on Christmas day, Hydro-Quebec reports that just over 108,000 customers remain without power due to 2,305 service interruptions.

Hydro Quebec crews continue to work to restore power to the tens of thousands of customers without power. SOURCE: Hydro Quebec/Twitter

The Quebec City region remains the most affected with 33,525 customers still without power. Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (15,698 customers), the North Coast (14,231), Mauricie (10,637), Laurentians (9,935), Bas-Saint-Laurent (7,227) and Monteregie (3,638) also remain hard hit. 

"We're hoping to bring back power for most of the outages by tomorrow night, so by Christmas dinner," said Hydro Quebec spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers. "We do understand that the time is not ideal; it's Christmas for everyone."