Environment Canada has issued a tropical cyclone statement for most of Atlantic Canada as Category 3 hurricane Fiona continues to track towards the east coast.
On Tuesday morning, the weather agency said Fiona was passing east of the Bahamas and is expected to travel northward later this week.
It’s expected to transform post-tropical storm by Saturday, according to the statement.
Although Fiona will no longer be a hurricane by the time it’s expected to reach the eastern shore, meteorologist Ian Hubbard with the Canadian Hurricane Centre said “it will still be a very powerful and strong post-tropical storm.”
There is currently an 800-kilometre range of uncertainty centered near eastern Cape Breton, according to Environment Canada.
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“There’s still a lot of uncertainty in exactly where it will go. And of course, that’s going to dictate where these impacts will be felt the most,” said Hubbard.
“We’ll see some very strong, possibly damaging winds, probably a lot of heavy rainfall over some areas. And we are expecting to see some coastal flooding, in terms of large waves and storm surge at some point.“
The cone of uncertainty is going to reduce in size later this week, and forecasters will have more details on the expected impact then.
Southern offshore areas are expected to feel the impact on Friday, and land areas of Atlantic Canada are expected to feel it on Saturday.
According to Hubbard, it’s a good time for Atlantic Canadians to start preparing for the potential impact.
“It’s a very good time to start thinking about this storm, paying attention to it, paying attention to the latest forecast, maybe get an idea of some of the things you want to do to prepare,” he said.
“Whether that’s supplies, batteries, that sort of thing, this is the time to really start thinking about that.“
The Canadian Hurricane Centre has been monitoring hurricane Fiona as of Sunday. It has already caused widespread damage in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Forecasters said the storm would cause massive flooding and threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain, with up to 76 centimeters possible in some areas.
A state of emergency was declared in the U.S. territory as the eye of the storm approached the island. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Centre, it’s forecasted the center of Fiona will pass near Grand Turk and the other eastern Turks and Caicos during the day.
— with files from Rebecca Lau and The Associated Press.
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