More than 100,000 people in Ontario are without power on Monday as a spring storm moves east after it lashed southern parts of the province on the weekend.
Hydro One, the provincial utility, said those without power include 30,000 customers in southwestern Ontario, 20,000 customers in central Ontario and 45,000 customers in eastern Ontario. The number of outages are increasing in the east.
Toronto Hydro crews are working to restore power to some 8,300 customers in the city. The CN Tower, a Toronto landmark, was closed on Monday due to the extreme weather.
Environment Canada, meanwhile, has ended the freezing rain warning for Toronto, but a rainfall warning remains in effect for the city and much of southern Ontario.
Freezing rain, ice pellets, high winds and heavy rain overnight snapped limbs from trees laden with ice, downing power lines and poles.
"We're still restoring power to a lot of customers who were affected by the storm throughout the weekend," Nancy Clark, spokesperson for Hydro One, told CBC Toronto.
"We've already restored power to over 180,000 customers since the start of the storm on Saturday morning. Now we still have 100,000 customers without power as the weather continues to move east.
"Hydro One is out in full force today."
As for Toronto Hydro, spokesperson Tori Gass said the outages are scattered throughout the city. As some outages are restored, others are occurring so there is fluctuation in the numbers of customers out. Crews are turning their attention to smaller areas now, she said.
The number of outages increased after 6 p.m. on Sunday and reached a peak around 3 a.m. on Monday.
At the height of the storm, Gass said Toronto Hydro had 44,000 customers without power in Toronto due to some 425 outages across the city.
"We are making progress but still have a ways to go."
According to Environment Canada, the storm produced 18 hours of ice pellets, six hours of freezing rain, 10 hours of rain from Saturday morning to Monday morning. The rain in Toronto came on Sunday night.
London, Ont.'s airport recorded 14 hours of freezing rain mixed with ice pellets, while Hamilton Airport recorded 11 hours of ice pellets, then eight hours of freezing rain. In Wiarton, Ont., at the airport, 39.2 centimetres of snow fell on Sunday.
Environment Canada said "significant" rainfall should be tapering off on Monday in Toronto.
CN Tower closed due to extreme weather
The CN Tower is closed after chunks of ice fell from the landmark on Monday. In a tweet, the CN Tower said the closure is due to extreme weather.
The Toronto Blue Jays said they are assessing the conditions around the Rogers Centre with the CN Tower and Toronto Police Service and will decide whether Monday night's game against the Kansas City Royals will go ahead.
City using 'selective plowing'
Toronto currently has 80 salt trucks on the roads, though only 30 of those are equipped with plows.
Barbara Gray, general manager of Toronto's transportation services division said the city has been using "selective plowing" to avoid clogging catch basins with ice. As a result, many side streets and sidewalks are not plowed.
"It's been a really challenging storm to stay ahead of," Gray said. "It's been a treasure trove of winter conditions."
Highway 400 closed near Barrie
The conditions are causing problems for drivers and commuters.
"We've got sheets of ice covering many parts of highways. We have multiple collisions involving transport trucks," said OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt in a video posted to Twitter.
Crews are trying to pull the truck out of a ditch by the side of the highway, but the cleanup will likely take much of the morning, Schmidt said.
The driver of the transport truck has been charged with dangerous driving, he added.
Provincial police reported more than 200 crashes in the Greater Toronto Area on Monday and over 1,600 in the GTA and surrounding area on the weekend.
Storm disrupts air travel
The storm also played havoc with air traffic.
At Toronto's Pearson International Airport, more than 100 arriving flights and more than 70 departing flights were cancelled Monday morning. Over the weekend, more than 600 flights were cancelled and many others were delayed.
Toronto's downtown Billy Bishop airport cancelled all departing flights on Sunday and received only one arrival all day.
For its part, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has cancelled a fan tailgate party in Maple Leaf Square for Monday's playoff game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins. MLSE said the decision was made with fan safety in mind.