In Canada, do cities lose electric power after winter storms?

Would this happen in Canada?



In Washington, DC and Baltimore there was 8 inches (20 centimetres) of snow and as a result all public transportation shut down completely, except underground transit.



Suburban areas are having multi-day power outages that could last a week long.

Everything is closed, almost every restaurant on every block is closed and the entrance hasn't been shoveled. All Government buildings in Washington, DC are canceling work for all their employees.



If 20 centimetres of snow fell in Canada, would this not happen? How often does power go out in Canadian cities after snow blizzards?In Canada, do cities lose electric power after winter storms?
It's probably true that the more snowstorms are experienced in the geographical area, the better is the preparedness for winter weather %26amp; storms. In some northern cities, the electrical lines are underground so that the storms cannot cause a loss of service.
In Vancouver, 8" of snow would be a major disaster.



I live in the Yukon, and people would barely even notice 8". The power lines for much of Canada have snow loads and temperatures calculated into their construction. We do have problems with ice storms, but snowstorms are not so bad unless they are really, really big, or people drive off the road and hit power poles, which usually only affects a local area.



We can also clear the roads very quickly. When I lived in Ottawa, 8" overnight would be cleared from the main routes by early or mid morning, and secondary roads by noon. Small streets might take a day or two, but enough people would have driven on them by then that by that afternoon at the latest, most people could get around.In Canada, do cities lose electric power after winter storms?
It happens, and occasionally in cities but tends to happen much more in rural areas, usually when a tree falls on a line, or sometimes when someone slides a vehicle into a power pole. How much it happens is entirely weather dependant. I've had winters with no power outages at all, others with several from an hour or two to as long as a couple of days or more. Eight inches of snow wouldn't bother most places, it usually takes at least twice that before trees start collapsing. Wet snow is the worst because it's heavy. Ice storms can be tough too.
Yes they do, and will. The snow causes shorts on the poles, which cause the power to cut off. It takes time for the linesmen to find the problem poles and fix them.

If you live on the Vancouver side of Canada at the moment though, your problem is not enough snow for the Olympics, not so much it causes blackouts.
Our power system was built with bypasses and alternative routes. If one of the centrals have a problem and the power is shut down, they pass on one of those alternative routes. 8 inches of snow is nothing in most parts of Canada and the only time I remember having a major outage was not with snow but with freezing rain.
That seems very extreme. I'm from Toronto and we've had a few bad winter storms but I can't recall a time where everything shut down. Power outages are not frequent. And government buildings don't shut down. Some schools will close sine the buses won't run but that's about it.
It happens occasionally, but definitely not very often all across Canada, even in Vancouver during a severe winter storm.
There is no doubt there would be disruptions however we are better suited for it then most places in the US and our power lines are generally established so as to withstand much of the stress. One of the big problems for Washington is the high amount of trees and branches that fell due to the weight of the snow and took out the wires. In our cities the trees are normally trimmed away from the hydro lines so that if some of them fall they don't normally take out the power.



20 cm of snow? Mickey Mouse. I can't remember a power outage in the last 10 years in any of the places I have lived. Any outages are normally isolated to small areas and it's back on in a few hours.



I remember a few years ago I was living in the Niagara Falls Canada area and we had a big storm blow through. At it's height our buses were running perhaps 15 minutes late but that was about it. In Buffalo NY however it was all a complete stop. No police, no fire, no snow plows, the airport was closed.... Everything came to a stand still. And we ended up having 7 cm more snow then they did in the same amount of time.