Former Hurricane Fiona made landfall early Saturday morning in Guysborough County in the northeastern corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of nearly 81 mph, while maximum gusts of more than 100 mph were detected, he added. It is the lowest-pressure storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, which also described hurricane-force winds that hit the region. More than 40% of the population in Nova Scotia is affected by power outages, according to Nova Scotia Electric. “We are seeing significant impacts from the storm, including uprooted trees, broken poles and downed power lines across the province,” the utility added. Previously a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said Fiona had transformed into a post-tropical cyclone as it moved north, exhibiting characteristics of storms with both tropical and high-latitude pedigrees. Regardless of its technical name, forecasters warned the storm would be a blockbuster. “This storm will be a severe event for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec,” the Canadian Hurricane Center wrote Friday. The federal agency previously said the storm had the potential to be “historic” and a “landmark weather event.” The storm was forecast to be so severe that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau postponed his visit to Japan, where he had planned to attend Shinzo Abe’s funeral, at the last minute on Friday. Hurricane warnings cover most of Nova Scotia, as well as Prince Edward Island and western Newfoundland, where forecasters are predicting 3 to 6 inches of rain, with up to 10 inches in some areas and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph. Tropical storm warnings extend from New Brunswick to eastern Quebec to northern Newfoundland, where rainfall could reach 5 inches and winds of at least 39 mph. The center also predicted a significant ocean surge, or storm surge of water above normal dry land, causing coastal flooding. He predicted a “rough and powerful surf” with waves of up to 26 to 40 feet (8 to 12 meters). As Fiona looks over Nova Scotia, a look at Canada’s strongest storms of the past Ahead of the storm’s arrival, Nova Scotia, home to about 1 million people, was bracing for the worst on Friday. Nova Scotia Power warned of widespread power outages, with trees still in full bloom and the ground relatively soft, and activated its emergency operations centre. And power outages could linger as crews wait for winds to calm before they can safely begin repairs, said Dave Pickles, the utility’s chief operating officer. Fiona, which brought devastating flooding to Puerto Rico and knocked out power to the entire island, is the latest marker of an Atlantic hurricane season that started slowly but suddenly picked up steam. The storm is one of five systems forecasters are monitoring in the Atlantic basin, including one that organized into Tropical Storm Ian on Friday night and could soon become a hurricane threat to Florida. Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
