Extreme cold | Quebec hits record electricity demand

Thousands of motorists had to request the services of CAA Quebec on Friday alone because of the cold.

With the wind chill, temperatures dropped below 40 degrees in almost all regions of Quebec on Friday. At the end of the day, the demand for electricity in the province reached a new record.

After asking Quebecers to reduce their electricity consumption as much as possible on Friday morning, Hydro-Québec recorded more than 42,700 megawatts of electricity demand at around 5:30 p.m. at the end of the day.

The historic consumption peak of approximately 40,500 megawatts reached in January 2022 has therefore been exceeded.

Extremely cold temperatures will test the ability of buildings to retain their heat, which will increase the demand for heating throughout Quebec, indicated the Crown corporation Friday morning.

At CAA Quebec, which helps motorists in the event of a breakdown, more than 6,000 service requests had been sent around 6:30 p.m., more than double the average, according to Nicolas Ryan, the director of public affairs. And the requests continue to come in, he says, to the point where the service had to put its mobile application and website on hold.

My vast majority of requests relate to vehicles that are struggling to start, he says.

The polar cold will continue until Saturday before temperatures soar again on Sunday.

A polar cold

A striking cold greeted the vast majority of Quebecers on Saturday morning, after a night of high winds.

In Montreal, the thermometer fell to -35 degrees Celsius on Friday morning, and below -42 with the wind chill, before remaining at -41 degrees for much of the day.

Similar temperatures varying between -40 and -43 due to the wind were recorded everywhere in southern Quebec, also explains Simon Legault, meteorologist for Environment Canada.

In the capital, the temperature dropped to -36 degrees Celsius on Friday morning, and to -44 degrees with the wind chill.

Further north, the thermometer went down again. In Chibougamau, in northern Quebec, the temperature reached -38 degrees Celsius, and -52 degrees with the wind chill, a threshold that had only been touched once, in 1992, according to Mr. Legault.

In Lac-Saint-Jean, the city of Roberval also reached -38 degrees Celsius, and -48 degrees with the wind.

“When it started to get cold, it stayed cold all the time,” says the meteorologist.

Gusts of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour were also listed, amplifying the cooling. Road conditions were particularly difficult due to blowing snow and slippery roads, said Mr. Legault.

A “yoyo” weekend

In most of Quebec, temperatures will rise during the day on Saturday, or by the night from Saturday to Sunday. In the east of the province, where maximum cooling has not yet been reached on Friday, the thermometer should start to rise on Sunday.

Please note: this polar cold wave is only short-lived. As of Sunday in Montreal and southern Quebec, the temperature should approach freezing. Light snow (between 5 and 10 centimeters), and maybe even a few drops of rain, are expected.

Temperatures above seasonal norms are expected to persist throughout the week, accompanied by some snowfall.

“It’s a very important temperature yoyo,” notes Mr. Legault. We have a brief very cold break in a generally very mild winter. And it’s probably the most intense cold we’ll have this winter. »

Fire and Homelessness

The City of Montreal has faced various challenges to ensure that this cold snap does not reach the most vulnerable.

On Friday morning, a fire broke out in a residential and commercial building in eastern Montreal, at the corner of Sherbrooke East and Carignan streets. Despite the scale of the disaster and the very intense cold, the evacuation of the inhabitants went well, indicated the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

However, the conditions were particularly difficult for the firefighters. Two SPVM police officers were also bothered by the smoke while they were evacuating the occupants. They were taken to hospital and their lives are not in danger. The incident itself caused no injuries.

The City of Montreal has also deployed a series of measures to help the homeless population. Two “temporary emergency sites” have been established in the event of overflows from the various shelters and heat stops in the metropolis.

A first, located in the borough of Ville-Marie, has been open since Tuesday. A second, in the Plateau Mont-Royal, became available Thursday. Both sites are open from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. through Sunday.

In the field, teams from the SPVM and the Mobile Social Intervention Mediation Team (ÉMMIS) were deployed to meet street people and guide them to services.

The Old Brewery Mission’s shuttle will be in circulation again in Montreal from Friday to Saturday night.

As for the metro entrances, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) provides a taxi service to transport vulnerable people to heat stops during the service closure period.