WET WEATHER
Wind, rain in store for Cape Breton.
Cape Breton will largely be spared the effects of the first major storm of the hurricane season.
Tropical storm Chris is gaining and losing strength as it rampages its way up the eastern seaboard, but by the time it begins to pass Cape Breton, a separate weather system will have mostly moved the storm so that high winds and a few hours of rain will be its main impact here.
“Thankfully, there’s a cold front that’s coming through and that cold front is going to kick the tropical storm — soon to be hurricane — and hold it further off shore than maybe was expected a few days ago,” said Cindy Day, the chief meteorologist for the SaltWire Network, on Tuesday.
“It is going to track south of Sable Island and then head for the Avalon. We will get some weather on the backside of the system, but it is not going to come close enough to give us extreme weather or significant rain.”
The storm’s impact will first be noticed in Cape Breton on Thursday between 10-11 a.m. when a five to six-hour rain band will begin to bring some 20 mm of precipitation.
As for winds, they will be from the northeast at about 50-60 km/h as the rain falls.
Were it not for the expected cold front, the effects of tropical storm Chris might be much more severe throughout Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
“Sometimes there are no systems steering other systems around an advancing tropical storm or hurricane and that allows it to wobble a little bit and that can change the expected track,” said Day. “But with this one, there’s a cold front that’s coming down from the northwest pushing towards the southeast. There really is no big option for the track of this storm, it’s going to continue to take on that northeasterly direction, picking up speed and weakening.”
Between tonight and early Thursday, Day is forecasting five to 10 millimetres of rain for Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island shouldn’t experience more than heavy cloud and some breezy conditions.
While the Maritimes are mostly unaffected, the same can’t be said for Newfoundland, particularly the Avalon Peninsula, which will feel the full effect of what’s left of Chris by the time the storm makes it to the even colder waters off the province’s southeast coast.
“Once it hits the colder water and starts to unravel, its forward motion increases as the winds decrease. It should bring some rain to the Avalon by the middle part of the day on Thursday and then we’ll be back to sunshine shortly after sunrise on Friday.