Hurricane Teddy expected Wednesday in northeastern parts of Atlantic Canada

HALIFAX — Hurricane Teddy is expected to hit areas of Atlantic Canada as a post-tropical storm on Wednesday, although its effects aren’t expected to be as severe as post-tropical storm Dorian, which blew through the region a year ago.

Bob Robichaud of the Canadian Hurricane Centre said Sunday that Teddy was moving as a Category 2 hurricane about 1,000 kilometres south of Halifax.

Robichaud said the storm had made a northward turn near Bermuda and was expected to stay on that projection over the next 48 hours. He said winds would begin to increase and there would be rain across Nova Scotia on Tuesday as Teddy meets another weather system offshore in Canadian waters.

“Based on the latest information we expect the track to go through either the eastern part of Nova Scotia before heading to Newfoundland, or even tracking offshore of Nova Scotia,” said Robichaud.

He said the strongest winds are expected to be east of the storm’s track.

Initial wind gusts beginning Tuesday could reach 90 kilometres per hour along the coast, with the rest of the province seeing winds of up to 60 to 70 kilometres an hour. The gusts are also expected for Prince Edward Island.

“Those winds should not be damaging winds,” Robichaud said. “There could be a few power outages but not necessarily damaging, certainly not compared to what we saw last year.”

Robichaud said the stronger winds are expected to stay offshore, although winds could gust to as high as 100 kilometres or more when the centre of the storm passes through eastern parts of the province on Wednesday.

“But right now based on the current track that’s a very thin sliver of land in Guysborough County and eastern Cape Breton. Areas to the left of the track should see wind speeds significantly less than that.”

Robichaud said a narrow band of rain estimated at between 50 to 100 millimetres was also expected with Teddy, along with high waves and pounding surf along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast.

He said there would be areas offshore that will see hurricane force winds.

“The wave aspect of this is something that is going to be potentially dangerous for the marine community as well,” said Robichaud. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2020.

The Canadian Press