Environment Canada says a special weather statement is in effect for Niagara Region including, Welland, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Grimsby.

The weather agency says strong southwest winds gusting to near 80 kilometres an hour will continue into Friday afternoon in the wake of a cold front. The winds will slowly start to diminish late Friday afternoon and the evening.

The strong winds may bring down some tree limbs and cause isolated power outages.

Special weather statements are the least urgent type of alert and are issued to let people know that conditions are unusual and could cause concern.