Severe thunderstorms packing winds of over 119 km/h battered several sectors of Quebec on Thursday evening, July 2, 2026, causing widespread damage and knocking out electricity for thousands of residents.
Environment Canada recorded the most violent gusts in the Lac Saint-Pierre sector.
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In Montreal, wind gusts reached a maximum speed of 96 km/h at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, while L'Assomption recorded the third-highest provincial wind speeds at 72 km/h.
The Montreal airport also registered 22.1 mm of brief torrential rainfall between 8:00 p. m.
and 9:00 p. m.
on Thursday.
Despite the intense downpours, the Vigilance water level monitoring network reported on Friday that no flooding occurred.
However, the extreme weather severely impacted the power grid, leaving 20,000 households without electricity by midday on Friday, down from a peak of 139,878 outages recorded on Thursday at 9:12 p.
m.
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Hydro-Quebec Response and Safety Warnings
"The storms that occurred on the evening of July 2 caused numerous outages in several regions of Quebec.
Work continues today in the affected regions. We are aware of the inconvenience during this period of heat," explained Hydro-Quebec on its website.
The utility company also warned the public about the immediate physical dangers left behind by the storm, specifically regarding fallen power lines in multiple neighborhoods.
"For your safety, do not touch them and keep your distance: even on the ground, they can be energized," warned the state-owned utility.
According to Hydro-Quebec data from Friday around 2:00 p. m.
, the regions of Lanaudiere and Laurentides remained the most heavily impacted, reporting 9,095 and 8,000 outages respectively.
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Within those sectors, the municipality of Saint-Lin-Laurentides had 3,004 addresses left to reconnect, while the Therese-De Blainville regional county municipality had nearly 3,216 affected households.
