Freezing temperatures hit eastern Canada and in particular Quebec, where a record electricity consumption was recorded on Tuesday.
In Montreal, the mercury fell on Tuesday morning to -24.9 degrees, emptying the streets and parks usually busy with athletes in all weathers.
Extreme temperature alerts have been issued by Environment Canada for several areas in eastern Canada – in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
“It is not exceptional but it is not very common to be that cold“, explained to AFP Simon Legault, meteorologist for Environment Canada, according to whom Quebecers”are no longer really used to the cold“.
In the Old Port district of Montreal, a stone’s throw from the city center, a usually touristy district but hit by the new health measures due to Covid-19, few onlookers brave the cold.
Pierre Lapalme, 75, well wrapped up under his hood and hat, remembers that this type of winter was usual during his youth, even “even colder than that“.
“I have the impression that it is global warming, we can now see very clearly that the winters are less cold than they were in the 60s or 70s“, he explains to AFP.
Around 8:00 am Tuesday, Quebecers consumed 39,900 megawatts, an absolute record. The precedent dated January 22, 2014, where a consumption of 39,031 megawatts had been recorded.
“This is the moment in the history of Hydro-Québec when consumption was the highest“, Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for the Quebec state company told AFP.