What Ida has in store this week
SYDNEY — If you were planning on going for a hike later this week, plan again.
Tropical Depression Ida is headed our way and will be making landfall late Thursday.
Ida, which has wreaked havoc in Louisiana and was moving across the Tennessee valley as of Tuesday afternoon, began as a category 4 storm.
“It was the first category 4 of the Atlantic hurricane season, it made landfall Sunday,” said SaltWire Network chief meteorologist Cindy Day. “It's been weakening, but still has a lot of moisture associated with the system.”
That moisture will translate to roughly 40-60 millimetres of rain over some western regions of Cape Breton, and 20-40 mm on the eastern side, beginning overnight Thursday and throughout Friday.
Westerly winds reaching 70 km/h will run Friday afternoon into midday Saturday.
“The winds are a big factor on Saturday but the rain itself comes through pretty quickly,” said Day.
“For Cape Breton, it will start overnight Thursday and wrap up Friday.”
Western Cape Breton won't see any les suêtes winds, but that doesn't mean winds will be light.
The Chéticamp area could see winds gusting to 90 km/h “pretty easily” on Saturday, said Day. They'll drop off to about 60 km/h on Sunday.
“So it's going to be a very windy weekend across Cape Breton, especially so for western regions,” she said.
The system is expected to be near Long Island, N.Y., by Thursday morning, said Day, but what happens after that will depend on where the strong high-pressure system over northern Quebec sits and how long it stays at its current strength.
“The projection that I see is this high-pressure system is slowly going to sink southward, and that's going to steer the remnants of Ida,” said Day.
Ida could re-intensify into a Tropical Storm off Long Island but then will likely weaken again as it moves out of the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream and closer to Nova Scotia's coastline.
“It's always important to note the wind direction and look around your property and see how that's going to impact your setup at your home,” said Day.