Canadian winter living up to its reputation as Arctic air chills Eastern provinces [Video]

Central and Eastern Canada have been plunged into the depths of winter this week, as a cold snap stretching from eastern Alberta to Atlantic Canada was in full swing Tuesday and Wednesday, in some cases straining power grids.

An outage cut power to nearly 100,000 Montreal addresses early Tuesday as temperatures dropped to -15 C, leaving more than 15,000 without power at one point. Early Wednesday morning, Hydro-Québec reported separate outages at more than 3,700 locations in Montreal, while parts of northern Quebec were under a blizzard warning late Wednesday.

Around 4,900 lost power in and around the New Brunswick city of Edmundston Tuesday morning, as Environment Canada reported temperatures dropping to -32 C.

In Toronto, temperatures dipped to -18 C early Wednesday morning, before climbing to -11 C by 7 p.m. — compared to an average high of -2 C this time of year, according to Environment and Climate …