“It’s probably going to be a big deal,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Ian Hubbard, according to CBC Canada. “It’s going to be a very significant wind event. We’re a few days away from it, so we still have to work on the details.”
The first impacts of Dorian will be felt along southern Nova Scotia on Saturday then eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island late Saturday into Saturday night and finally Newfoundland late Saturday night into Sunday.
While Dorian is expected to lose its tropical characteristics as it moves over the colder waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, it will still be a potent wind and rainmaker. Since Dorian will be transitioning from a tropical to an non-tropical system, the strongest winds will be well removed from the center of circulation.
The Canadian forecast calls for severe winds and rainfall to have major impacts for southeastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, western Newfoundland and Quebec’s Lower North Shore, with a chance of a storm surge that may affect parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Expect wind speeds of 80 and 100 kph (50 to 62 mph) across extreme southwestern Nova Scotia Saturday evening and between 75 and 95 kph (47 to 59 mph) across the rest of southern/eastern Nova Scotia Saturday night. With these wind speeds, there could be downed trees and loss of power in some locations.
Rainfall is expected to be significant, with the highest amounts likely for Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence region, with the possibility of as much as 100 millimeters (4 inches) to the north and west of Dorian, reports the Globe and Mail.
“We want to make sure people are paying attention to our forecasts and basing their decisions on that,” said Hubbard. “There is still a lot of uncertainty in [Dorian’s] track. We can’t pin down exactly where it’s going to go at this point.”
Hubbard also warns people not to focus on Dorian’s precise track because the storm is still expanding. “The impacts of this storm will reach well beyond the eye of the storm center,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of wind over a lot of areas, regardless of whether you are close to that center or if you’re a couple of hundred kilometers away.”
