The freezing temperatures that hit Montreal and the rest of the province in recent days had not been reached since 1994.
The episode of extreme cold lasted from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon, bringing the temperature down to -29 ohC, Friday morning, at the Montreal airport. “At this time of the year, the normal is -5 ohC day and -14 ohC at night,” notes Catherine Vallières, meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada. In Montreal, the wind chill reached -43. However, the temperatures did not smash the province’s historic cold records.
Ms. Vallières notes that the cold snap affected all of Quebec, but it was the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region that was one of the hardest hit. “The wind chill reached -50, and the winds were all the more sustained, among others in Roberval and Bagotville,” she adds.
For its part, Hydro-Québec reached its all-time record for electricity demand on Friday. The Crown Corporation said in a tweet that around 5:30 p.m. demand reached 42,700 megawatts in the province, which shattered the previous record, set in January 2022. Heavy electricity consumption was also seen. Saturday morning.
There were a few power outages during the cold spell, but the number remained minimal. About 17,000 users lost power on Saturday, and 6,000 remained in this situation on Sunday, in the middle of the afternoon.
Back to mild times
The cold spell now over, “very mild” temperatures are to be expected this week in Quebec. They should be on the normal for the season, and even above.
“Tuesday evening, there will be a low pressure trough, therefore melting snow, even rain, explains Ms. Vallières. We will see again this week temperatures that will go above the freezing point. » Temperatures up to 3 ohC are planned during the week, in Montreal.