Cooler waters weaken Teddy, won’t hit Canada at hurricane strength

The huge hurricane that was hurtling toward Canada has weakened over the cooler waters north of the Gulf Stream, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Teddy’s maximum sustained winds were still at 85 mph as the cyclone hovered 190 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia. But the hurricane center had labeled it a as a posttropical cyclone and said it would drop below hurricane-strength before reaching Nova Scotia as it moves over even colder waters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Still, the powerful storm will bring large destructive waves to the southern coast of Nova Scotia through Wednesday, forecasters said. A 42-foot wave was reported at a Canadian buoy 90 miles from the storm’s center on Tuesday afternoon.

After passing Bermuda, Teddy grew stronger and larger. It still looks like an “impressive cyclone” on satellite images, with a circulation over 1,000 miles wide and a distinct eye, the hurricane center said.

Teddy is moving north at 18 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 125 miles from the center. Tropical-stormforce winds extend outward up to 540 miles from the center.

Teddy was expected to approach Nova Scotia on Wednesday and move near or over Newfoundland by Wednesday night and east of Labrador by Thursday.

A tropical storm warning has been issued for the south coast of Nova Scotia from Digby to Meat Cove, in Canada. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Nova Scotia from Meat Cove to Tidnish, as well as other parts of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

The hurricane center is keeping an eye on the remaining storms in the tropics, including former Tropical Storm Beta and Tropical Storm Paulette. A storm system that was forecast to loop around Cuba and head back toward South Florida dissipated by Tuesday night.

Beta made landfall as a tropical storm about 5 miles north of Port O’Connor, Texas, late Monday, making it the “ninth named storm to landfall in the mainland U.S. in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, tying a record that had stood for over 100 years,” according to The Weather Channel.

“That tied the 1916 season, which previously stood as the lone record-holder for the most number of mainland U.S. landfalls in any season,” according to Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

Beta, which had weakened to a tropical depression as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, also marked the first time a Greek-letter named storm made landfall in the continental U.S., according to the Associated Press.

A slow-moving Beta is forecast to stall along the coast or just inland for between 12 and 24 hours, dumping up to a foot of rain to the middle and upper Texas coast, with isolated storm totals up to 20 inches, forecasters say.

“We currently have both storm surge and rainfall going on right now,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Amaryllis Cotto in Galveston.

Cotto estimated that six to 12 inches of rain had fallen as of early Tuesday. Dangerous flash flooding is expected through Wednesday, he said.

Storm surge up to 4 feet could occur in the Galveston and Beaumont areas through Wednesday morning, forecasters said. Flash flooding could also occur in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

On its latest forecast track, the remnants of Beta will move inland over southeastern Texas through Wednesday and then over Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday night through Friday.

In addition to posing a flood threat for Texas, Beta could bring up to five inches of rain to New Orleans. Up to 8 inches is forecast in Morgan City, La., according to the Weather Channel. Flash flooding could occur in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, forecasters said.

Beta formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, right after Tropical Storm Wilfred and Subtropical Storm Alpha in the Atlantic, bringing the hyperactive 2020 hurricane season up to 23 named storms.

It’s just the second time in history that forecasters have had to turn to the Greek alphabet for storm names.

In the last advisory on Beta, the storm was 40 miles north of Port O’Connor, Texas. It had maximum sustained winds of 30 mph and was inching east-northeast at 5 mph.

Tropical storm warnings and storm surge warnings for the area were discontinued as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Former Hurricane Paulette regenerated into a tropical storm about 335 miles southeast of the Azores late Monday, the hurricane center said. It does not pose a threat to land at this time.

Forecasters expect Paulette to become a post-tropical cyclone by Wednesday morning.

Paulette had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was traveling east at 12 mph, the hurricane center in its latest advisory.

The next storms will be Gamma and Delta and Epsilon. This has only ever happened once before — during the record-shattering 2005 hurricane season that produced Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. In that year, Tropical Storm Zeta formed on Dec. 30, the 28th named storm.