DARTMOUTH – If hurricane Earl stays on the projected track that he's on it's likely that landfall could be somewhere in the Saint John, N.B. area.
Chris Fogarty, program supervisor for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said the current track shows the hurricane coming up the Bay of Fundy, but he cautioned it could make landfall as far east as Guysborough County or as far
west as central Maine.
"There is still that area of uncertainty, there's a range of possible tracks," he said from Dartmouth. "I've seen in past storms they could behave interestingly."
The 9 a.m. landfall is still being suggested by the hurricane centre plus or minus six hours.
With that latest track in mind Fogarty said western mainland Nova Scotia would experience the highest winds. Rains would be heaviest to the west of the storm.
He said that wind strengths are still an uncertain factor.
"Winds with these types of storms are the challenging things to predict."
If the hurricane tracks up the Bay of Fundy those colder waters would act to lessen wind speeds, said Fogarty.
When Earl makes landfall it could still be a Category 1 hurricane packing 130 km/h winds.
Bands of heavy rain could proceed the storm by a few hours and winds could last up to four hours. Fogarty predicted a period between three to five hours of high winds and rains.
Tropical storm were posted earlier Thursday for the southwestern area of Nova Scotia and those watches were being extended to New Brunswick and P.E.I. later in the day.
