In less than 24 hours, Ottawa weather conditions have turned from feeling like early spring to a winter deep freeze.

With the cooler temperatures came snow squalls and gale force winds that made walking down the street a challenge.

At Camp Fortune in Gatineau, wind speeds hit 80 km/h and forced the closure of the ski area.

"The chairs are swinging — it's a dangerous situation so we decided to close," said Camp Fortune co-owner Bob Sudermann. "And it made it a lot easier when the power went out. We're dealing with no power and high winds."

The opening of Jacques-Cartier Park's Snowflake Kingdom was delayed as well, due to icy conditions throughout the park.

Denise LeBlanc, spokesperson for the National Capital Commission, said the Winterlude festival's ice slide attraction will open Saturday instead.

"Although you want to be slipping and sliding down the slides, you do not want to be slipping when you're just walking around," said LeBlanc. "So we're concerned that people could slip, slide and injure themselves and we really don't want that."

The wind also knocked out power lines on the south side of the Ottawa River leaving more than 6,000 customers in the rural areas without electricity.

On Metcalfe Street, the wind blew chunks of ice from the roof of one building which smashed the windows on another. At Dow's Lake, a warming hut for skaters was blown off its moorings and halfway across the lake.

With the opening of Winterlude Friday, crews are working around the clock on the Rideau Canal skateway. A 2.2 km section is set to re-open and festival activities at Confederation Park are expected to proceed.