DARTMOUTH – Hurricane Earl is predicted to hit Nova Scotia Saturday morning
packing the punch of a Category 1 hurricane or a high-end tropical storm.
Chris Fogarty, program supervisor for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said on
Wednesday afternoon that it's a bit early to make accurate landfall
predictions given the fact that Earl is still between two-and-a-half and
three days away from landfall. He said at this point there's a 50 per cent
chance of Earl making landfall in Nova Scotia.
"It could make landfall from eastern Maine to Cape Breton basically,"
Fogarty said. "Most of the computer models show (it making landfall) in the
western part of Nova Scotia."
He said winds will be strongest to the east of the storm track while the
west side of the track will face the heaviest rains.
Winds could gust as high as 140km/h inland and those factors will be
narrowed down as the storm approaches.
"On Thursday we are definitely going to see a refinement in certainty.
That's when we start talking about winds speeds and rain falls," Fogarty
said.
