Freezing rain, snowfall makes for slippery morning in southern Quebec

Commuters are encouraged to be extra vigilantThursday morning as freezing rain and snow overnight createdslippery conditions in southern Quebec.

Environment Canadaissued a freezing rain warning for the greater Montreal area Wednesday,forecastingbetween two to 10 millimetres beginning that evening.

The agency warnedthat the messy weather cocktail leftroads and sidewalks"icy and slippery,"particularly on the island andin theOutaouais,Montrgie and Eastern Townships.

Transports Qubec is reporting numerous highway exits covered in snow or icein the metropolitan area, including Highways 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50. Conditions are also difficult on Routes 132, 138 and 148 as well as on Routes 344, 309, 323 and 327 in the Outaouais.

Significant amounts of snow that fell north of the St. Lawrence River are also complicating traffic on roads in the Laurentians, Mauricie and Lanaudire.In Trois-Rivires and Quebec City, the majority of expressways are partially covered or covered in snow.

Police around QuebecCity are warning of several cars that have gone off the road.

In a tweet,Transports Qubecurged travellers to check the Qubec 511websiteand app for information on road conditions before they plan to travel.

Environment Canada is asking people to consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

Thousands without power

The federal weather agency saidthe freezing rain will end in the greater Montreal area,Outaouais andLaurentians in the morning andchange over to a mix of light snow and intermittent freezing drizzle possibly creating an additional thin layer of ice.

Meanwhile, the icy precipitation has already plunged thousands of Quebecers into darkness, with the majority of impacted people in the Montrgie.

Nearly 15,000 Hydro-Qubec customers in the regionare without power as a result of the weather.

"It'scaused most probably bybuilt-up ice on trees which causes the branches to break and to come in contact with our power lines," said Hydro-Qubec spokespersonValrie Ouellette.

The public utility said it cannot say when customers will have their power back on. About 75 teams of workers some coming from other regions to help out will be on the ground to assess the damage and provide an update on the timeline.

The freezing rain warning was lifted in the Montrgie and Eastern Townships Wednesday night, but warnings remain in effect for Gatineau, Lachute, Richelieu and Vaudreuil.

According to Environment Canada, the Lanaudire and Mauricie regions should receive about five centimetres of additional snow Thursday.