President Donald Trump meets with Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Over 35,000 Montreal homes are without electricity as temperatures plummet
<img src="https://www.mtlblog.com/media-library/hydro-quebec-workers-restore-power-to-a-montreal-street.jpg?id=55732166&width=1200&height=600&coordinates=0%2C12%2C0%2C12"/><br/><br/><p>As <a href="https://www.mtlblog.com/montreal-weather-january-cold">temperatures plunged from freezing to brutally frigid</a> on Tuesday morning, many Montrealers woke up to find their homes without power.</p><p>On January 21, <a href="https://infopannes.solutions.hydroquebec.com/info-pannes/pannes/bilan-interruptions-service" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hydro-Québec </a>reported that a significant outage started around 6:25 a.m., impacting much of the city. As many as 50,000 were initially affected. As of 9:00 a.m., around 35,000 homes out of a total of 1,036,980 remained without electricity.</p><p>The hardest-hit areas are in the northern part of the island, including the boroughs of Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Villeray–Saint–Michel–Parc–Extension.</p><p>This comes as a polar vortex grips much of North America, with <a href="https://www.mtlblog.com/tag/montreal-weather">Montreal's temperatures</a> dropping to a frigid -15 C on Tuesday morning.</p><p>The ongoing outage is reportedly caused by equipment damage linked to a manufacturing defect, according to Hydro-Québec's <a href="https://infopannes.solutions.hydroquebec.com/info-pannes/pannes/bilan-interruptions-service" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Info-Pannes page</a>. Unfortunately, no timeline has been provided for when power will be restored.</p><p>With the bitter cold posing additional challenges, Hydro-Québec has postponed all planned maintenance outages for January 21 and 22, focusing only on essential and brief interruptions.</p><p>Tuesday is expected to see lows of -18 C with temperatures gradually climbing up throughout the rest of the week. </p><p>In the meantime, people affected should stay as warm as possible, and be sure to check Hydro-Québec's website for updates as more information becomes available.</p><p><em>This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.</em></p><p><em>AI tools may have been used to support the creation or distribution of this content; however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of MTL Blog's Editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our <a href="https://www.mtlblog.com/editorial-standards" target="_blank">Editorial Standards page</a>.</em></p>
