Scattered power outages reported in Toronto as cold front brings high winds

Toronto Hydro reported scattered power outages across the city as an intense cold front moved across Southern Ontario on Wednesday, bringing high winds and a sharp drop in temperature.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the utility attributed the outages to windy conditions. As of 10:30p.m., the outages weremainly in the Junction area. Thousands of customers were affected at one point in the evening.

"Crews continue to respond to several scattered outages across the city, and will work around the clock to restore power to all impacted customers as quickly and safely as possible," Toronto Hydro said on X, formerly Twitter.

Toronto Hydro had saidresidents without power shouldconsider switching theirphones to battery-saving mode to help conserve power, dressing in layers of loose clothing, wrapping in blankets and staying in one room to remain warm.

"We know it's difficult to be without power, and truly appreciate your patience and understanding," Toronto Hydro had said.

The utility reminded Toronto residents to stayat least 10 metres back,about the length of a school bus, from any downed wires and to report themimmediately.

Environment Canada said the strong winds were expected to ease overnight.T he forecast had called for strong winds gusting between70 km/h and 80 km/h on Wednesdayevening.

Temperatures plummeted on Wednesdayfrom a high of 13 C earlier in the dayto around -2 C.

Sudden change fromspring-like conditions

"We are essentially going to be going from spring-like conditions to the thrusts of winter, where we should be this time of year," said Brad Rousseau, a meteorologist at Environment Canada.

With the balmy temperatureson Wednesday morning, some locals were out enjoying the weather.

Natalya Telenchenko has lived in Canada for 40 years and said she has never seen weather this warm in February before.

Though the warmer temperatures are better for her dogs, Telenchenko said she hasn't participated in many winter sports this year.

"I'm a little bit concerned why it's so warm in February," she said. "But I'll take it."

For musician Ruslan Nebesov, the warm weather is a hopeful sign that spring is coming soon.

"Warm is better than cold, in my opinion," Nebesov said.

Meanwhile, lake effect snow is expected to develop off Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

That means some areas in the northern stretches of the GTA could see blasts of snowfall of up to two centimetres, Rousseau said.

The temperature was forecast to fall -7C by Wednesday night, though it will feel more like -15with the wind chill.