In hard-hit Quebec, the provincial utility said it might take up to a week to restore power to all of three million people left shivering in the dark or camped out at emergency shelters. Canadian Forces troops have been called in to aid weary Hydro workers around Montreal. Canada senior climatologist David Phillips, a self-proclaimed custodian of weird, wild weather says the damage caused by this storm will easily rank among the top ten weather disasters ever recorded. Basically it is being caused by the collision of warm and cold air. When warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico hits the cold Canadian air, it forms layers.
Snow falling from the cold layer turns to rain in the warm band.
However, it will turn into super cool water droplets after it hits another layer of cold air nearer to the surface of the ground. These droplets freeze into a veneer of ice, explains Phillips. And yes, the ubiquitous El Ni o may have had a part to play in the wretched weather, he adds. Warm breezes from the south may have been brought on by this global weather phenomenon. And we are not out of the woods yet.