Thunderstorms knock out power to thousands across Quebec
Posted July 22, 2026 7:47 am.
Last Updated July 22, 2026 4:43 pm.
Thousands of Quebec residents were still without electricity Wednesday morning after powerful thunderstorms moved across the province overnight.
Hydro-Québec said outages reached roughly 46,000 customers Tuesday evening before gradually declining.
By 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, nearly 13,000 homes and businesses remained without power, with the Laurentians reporting the largest number of outages at more than 4,200 addresses.
At 12:12 p.m., 3,328 were still without power in the the Laurentians and 847 in Lanaudière.
By 4:41 p.m., those numbers were down to 1,297 in the Laurentians and 371 in Lanaudière.
Bas-Saint-Laurent and Lanaudière also continued to see widespread outages, while service had been restored to most affected customers in Montérégie.
In Saint-Hyacinthe, more than 15,000 customers experienced a power interruption after a transformer substation malfunctioned, requiring emergency repair work.
Environment Canada had warned of heavy rainfall and strong wind gusts across southern Quebec, conditions that contributed to the scattered outages.
