Wicked winds and record highs: A wild weather day in Montreal

A wicked windstorm blew through Montreal on Dec. 19, 2025, causing major power outages and damage across the island.

Montreal has been hit with some wild weather to end the week.

Environment Canada issued a wind warning for the Greater Montreal area, with strong southwesterly winds sweeping through the region Friday afternoon and evening.

On the same day, Montreal reached record-high temperatures when it pushed to 12 degrees Celsius, breaking the mark set in 1949 of 8.3 degrees.

On Friday afternoon, wind gusts reached up to 90 kilometres per hour, causing localized power outages.

Officials urged residents to secure loose outdoor objects and exercise caution, particularly while driving high-profile vehicles or walking near trees and power lines.

A significant low-pressure system tracked across the prairies, resulting in blizzard conditions, and was over Quebec, explained Environment Canada meteorologist Serge Besner.

“Now, ahead of this low-pressure system, the winds are very strong from the south, and they’ve brought up a lot of warm air, and so temperatures are getting up into the plus single digits, even approaching the low double digits in some areas,” he said. “But the big story with this system is strong southerly winds, the wind gusts and the heavier bands of rain. Most of that rain will occur today.”

Power outages in the thousands

As of 11 a.m., some 70,000 Hydro-Quebec customers across the province had already lost electricity, including 31,576 in the Monteregie, south of Montreal. The Outaouais and Eastern Townships each also saw about 13,000 outages.

By noon, the numbers had jumped to over 73,000 in Quebec, with over 32,000 of those in the Monteregie, over 16,000 in the townships, over 7,700 in Outaouais, and just above 7,300 in the Centre-du-Quebec region.

Hydro-Quebec said that the outages were caused largely by vegetation coming into contact with the power grid.

“There is also damage to electrical network equipment, such as wooden poles broken by strong winds,” said spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty.

He added that there were more than 500 workers in the field, restoring power.

“We are facing a severe wind event affecting different regions successively,” said Batty. “As the event is ongoing, the number of customers without power is constantly changing: new outages occur while others are being resolved.”

• SEE REAL-TIME OUTAGES BY REGION HERE

By 3:30 p.m., the number of customers without power was down to just above 50,000, with the highest number of outages (20,217) in the Monteregie.

Back to seasonal levels

The warning also extends to parts of southern Quebec, including Drummondville and the Bois-Francs region.

Gusty conditions are expected across much of the St. Lawrence Valley as the weather system moves through.

Winds are forecast to gradually ease overnight into early Saturday.

Temperatures are expected to plummet back down to seasonal temperatures, dropping to an overnight low of -7C with some flurries.

• Hourly and 7-day forecast on our CTVNewsMontreal.ca weather hub

Environment Canada says confidence in the forecast is high and continues to monitor conditions as the system approaches.

Besner said all that wild weather will change.

“The weather system continues to progress eastward, winds are going to change to the northwest, bring in much colder temperatures with snow, but continuing gusty winds, and that’s going to be significant, I believe, especially for the drivers, people that are traveling, because any roads that are not well protected with salt will likely freeze and there will be some drifting and blowing snow,” he said.

- With files from Anastasia Dextrene and Lauren Roberts