Although Hurricane Harvey isn’t expected to have much of an impact on Canada, forecasters are warning of another potentially powerful storm that could blow through eastern parts of the country next week.
Halifax meteorologist Jim Murtha said Harvey – which strengthened to a Category 2 storm as it steered toward the Texas coast on Friday – could bring some rainfall anywhere from southern Ontario to the Maritimes in several days.
READ MORE: Hurricane Harvey heads for Texas coast, labelled as ‘life-threatening’
“We’re not talking copious amounts of rain by the looks of it. The bigger worst-case scenario is the development of the next storm. That’s the one that right now, we really want to pay attention to,” said Murtha, who works out of the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth.
Murtha said the storm could develop over the weekend off the east coast of Florida.
WATCH: NOAA ‘hurricane hunter’ aircraft flies through the eye of Hurricane Harvey.
He said the system has the potential to be “quite a storm” and could bring heavy rainfall and strong winds to parts of Atlantic Canada mid-next week or beyond.
“It’s a little bit of a domino effect. What happens to Harvey and how long it lingers along the Gulf Coast, and what happens to the remnants of that… will have an effect on the evolution of this second system off the coast of Florida,” he said.
Murtha said the centre is hoping forecasts become clearer over the weekend.
WATCH: Parts of the U.S. bracing as Hurricane Harvey looks to break records
If the storm forms and unfolds with tropical characteristics, he said the next name on the list in Irma.
Forecasters in the U.S. said Friday Harvey had strengthened to a Category 2 storm with the potential to swamp communities more than 160 kilometres inland.
The slow-moving hurricane could be the fiercest to hit the United States in almost a dozen years. Forecasters labelled Harvey a “life-threatening storm” that posed a “grave risk” as millions of people braced for a prolonged battering.
READ MORE: 5 things you need to know about Hurricane Harvey
Landfall was predicted for late Friday or early Saturday along the central Texas coast, between Port O’Connor and Matagorda Bay.
The storm had the potential to produce winds reaching 200 kilometres an hour and storm surges of four metres.
—With files from The Associated Press
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