Hurricane Fiona is a Category 4 hurricane as it moves north of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

DANCE FLOOR

Little has changed in the storm’s overall forecast path from Tuesday through Wednesday.  Fiona is forecast to move north as a Category 4 hurricane passing west of Bermuda early Friday morning.  It is expected to enter Atlantic Canada’s Scotian Slope waters as a major Category 3 hurricane late Friday night.  Fiona is then forecast to approach eastern Nova Scotia as a Category 2 hurricane upgrading to a strong post-tropical storm.

Fiona is forecast to continue as a major hurricane as it enters the southernmost waters of the region.

CONSTRUCTION

It looks increasingly likely that Fiona will make landfall somewhere in the area that stretches from Guysborough County to easternmost Cape Breton County in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning.  There’s still time to see a change in that outlook as the forecast cone — the area the storm’s center is likely to travel a path — still reaches from eastern Halifax County to western Newfoundland.
Regardless of the discharge point, there will be widespread impacts from wind, rain and storm surge in the Maritimes.  Weather conditions will worsen from Friday night into Saturday.

A landfall as a strong posttropical storm appears possible in eastern Nova Scotia Saturday morning.

BROAD IMPLICATIONS

As the storm becomes transtropical, it will stretch and grow in size.  This will also extend the area of ​​rain and wind outward from the center of the storm.
With these storms, the heaviest rain often falls along and west of the track.  That would put a large portion of Prince Edward Island, as well as the eastern half of Nova Scotia, at risk of seeing totals of 80 to 150+ millimeters possible, with the rain torrential at times.  This will also create a risk of flooding, flash flooding and washouts.

Torrential rains will bring a risk of flooding. The risk is highest for PEI and central/eastern Nova Scotia. As with the rain, the storm’s wind field will expand to bring widespread impacts to the Maritimes. While the strongest winds are likely to be in and just east of the passage of the storm’s center, much of the Maritimes is at risk of tropical storm-force winds. A tropical storm force wind is defined as a one-minute sustained wind speed of 63 kilometers per hour, which would almost certainly produce peak gusts of 100 kilometers per hour or more. The chance of this type of wind occurring for a period of time from Friday night into Saturday is now high for PEI and the eastern half of Nova Scotia. Strong winds will bring power outages and the risk of downed branches and tree debris. There is still almost full foliage on the trees and the presence of leaves can increase the force of the wind on them. The highest chance of winds reaching at least tropical storm strength continues to be eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. A higher than normal surf and crashing waves will be present along most of the coast from Friday to Saturday. The risk of a storm surge will be highest along Nova Scotia’s eastern Atlantic coast — particularly Cape Breton — as well as the Nova Scotia North Shore and north PEI shores on Saturday.

PREPARATION

Most people in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and eastern New Brunswick should prepare shortly before the storm.  Anyone using a sump pump or generator should check to make sure they are in working order and have fuel.  It is also important to make sure that battery-operated devices are charged or that you have a means to charge them in the event of a power outage.
Other preparations may include:


 clearing the property drain of any late summer debris     have food and medicine that can last you through the storm and for a few days afterward 


Consider postponing travel during the storm’s passage, which again is mostly Friday night through Saturday morning and afternoon.