Atlantic Canada Being Blasted By Repeated Big Storms

One forecast depiction of an intense bomb cyclone
expected to hit Newfoundland on Tuesday. This storm will
blast the coastline up there with near hurricane force gusts.

 The most intense in a series of strong storms is about to blast parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland with wild gales, torrential rains and battering waves on the coast. 

We told you last week about a dip in the jet stream that has roughly centered itself in or near Quebec. 

The position of this dip allows storms to develop near the United States coast and then intensify as they move northeast into Canada. 

A nor'easter was developing off the North Carolina coast today. It will move north and east, well off the New England coast. 

Meanwhile, a separate system, with a cold front that will give us in Vermont a spate of showers this afternoon and tonight, is heading east. 

The two storms will team up, and the nor'easter will explode into that intense storm. Waters off the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are way warmer than normal for this time of year. The warm water will add fuel for the storm and make it especially intense.   

The storm should blow past the eastern tip of Nova Scotia early Tuesday then smack into Newfoundland during the day. 

Though it will be a fairly compact storm, the barometric pressure at its center could go down to as low as 944 millibars or 27.88 inches of mercury, a sign of particularly powerful storm. 

As a result, parts of eastern Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on Tuesday can expect wind gusts as high as 68 mph and up to three inches of rain. . Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for the areas that will be hit by the storm. 

Huge waves will batter the coastlines. Environment Canada has also issued coastal flood alerts for parts of Newfoundland. The wind and rain warnings might well be extended into Nova Scotia. 

The Maritime provinces of Canada are now caught in a stormy pattern, thanks to the weather pattern that centers that southward push of the jet stream in or near Quebec. 

The storm that brought decent rains to us in Vermont last Friday intensified further and brought high winds and heavy rain to Maritimes. Up in Canada, the rain got a boost from the remnants of Hurricane Melissa passing by just offshore of Newfoundland. 

Three more storms between Wednesday and next Monday will be beginning to develop near us here in Vermont, giving us light to moderate amounts of precipitation. 

Several weather models indicate each of these storms will become powerful once they head up toward Newfoundland. They might not be as strong as the one that will hit Tuesday, but will still stir things up with more potentially damaging winds and a flood risk. 

Another Snow Bomb: Atlantic Canada Buried In Up To Five Feet Of Snow

A person walks between a barn and
an immense snow drift in 
Albert Bridge, Nova Scotia

The other day, I told Vermonters in this post that if they're starved for snow, they should go to Anchorage, Alaska. 

It turns out you don't need to go that far.  

Parts of Atlantic Canada, especially areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are absolutely buried in snow, thanks to a three-day storm last week. 

The worst of it was in eastern Nova Scotia in and near Cape Breton Island a whopping three to five feet of snow fell.  

At one Cape Breton apartment complex, a combination of accumulating snow and more snow falling off the roof piled up against ground floor apartment windows. The pressure then smashed the windows in, filling apartments with snow. 

Residents of the complex shoveled snow away from windows that had not yet broken and installed plywood where windows did break. 

The storm finally tapered off yesterday, but crews are struggling to clear the sometimes waist deep, heavy snow from streets and highways.  Gusty winds today will cause blowing and drifting snow, which will undoubtedly hinder the effort. 

People were warned to stay out of barns and other unstable structures because roofs could collapsed. Many homeowners were shoveling snow off of roofs, fearing the weight of it all could damage the houses. 

The Atlantic Canada storm was part of the Omega block weather pattern I told you about last week.  In this situation, intense storms lingered near California and near the southeastern coast of Canada. In between these two extremes, over central North America, a northward bulge in the jet stream created calm conditions and in many cases, near record high temperatures. 

As CBC reported:

"'Typically, low pressure systems follow the jet stream and move through the region west to east,' explained (CBC meteorologist Ryan )Snodden.

'This storm was a cut-off low, which is disconnected from the jet stream, and as a result it stalled east of the region, causing the prolonged snowfall.'"

The storm is finally slowly moving away. Some minor thawing is expected in much of the area hardest hit by the snow, with temperatures falling back below freezing next week.  No more immense storms are in the cards for the next several days.  

Videos:

News report on the incredible snow from Global New. Click on this link to view, or if you see the the image below, click on that:

A folksy news report from CBC gives the perspective on one street. Again, click on this link or if you see image below click on that. 

I'm a little scared for the 82-year-old dude in this video trying to clear his driveway. Don't want him to have any kind of heart attack. Once again, click on this link to view or if you see image below use that: 

Saving the best video for last. The dude who shoveled the snow in the photo on this post and his wife get interviewed by CBC. Romantic couple, and they guy says he will have "rock solid abs" after spending nine hours shoveling.  This is SUCH a Canadian couple. The snow falling off the roof and onto his head during the interview is a nice touch.

Again, click on the this link to view, or if you see image below, click on that:

Lee Batters Maine More Than Expected, Vermont Surprisingly Pleasant

The last of the clouds from Storm Lee leaving 
Vermont Saturday evening had the look of finely
textured marble. 

Former Hurricane Lee is now making its way out of southeastern Canada, fading near the cold waters of the North Atlantic and into history. 

The storm made landfall Saturday about 50 miles southeast of Eastport Maine in an area of New Brunswick, Canada. It skirted just a few miles west of the western tip of Nova Scotia before landfall. 

The eastern half of Maine got pummeled more than I expected. One death was reported when a large tree limb fell on a car in Searsport, Maine. 

Maine is the most heavily wooded state in the nation, so the high winds on soggy ground were able to take down a lot of trees. Some of which hit power lines. Around 11 percent of Maine residents lost power in the storm. Over in Nova Scotia, more than a quarter of the province's population had no electricity, according to the Associated Press.  

Meanwhile, here in Vermont, which isn't really that far from the tropical storm zone, got off even easier than the already optimistic forecasts ahead of the storm. 

Wind gusts had been forecast to be in the 30 to 40 mph range, but ended up being quite a bit less than that. Top wind speed in Burlington Saturday was an underwhelming 28 mph. 

Skies began to clear in parts of the state during the afternoon. The late afternoon and evening in western Vermont proved to be one of the nicest of the summer. 

Temperatures were perfect. Instead of annoying gusts, we had pleasant, soft light breezes.  . The skies were a deep blue, mixed with some finally, pretty, textured high clouds from the remnants of Lee's outflow. 

A NEW ENGLAND MISS OF SORTS

It's true Maine was pretty trashed by Lee, but this storm was yet another miss from a would-be hurricane in New England.  Lee was considered post-tropical by the time in neared Maine and Nova Scotia. And it made landfall just over the U.S. border in Canada. That means New England has not had a direct hit from a hurricane since Hurricane Bob in 1991.  

Irene in 2011 was a tropical storm - a particularly destructive one - by the time it hit New England, so it doesn't count as a hurricane. Floyd in 1999,  Isaias in 2020 and a few others were also former hurricanes, when they hit New England, but were downgraded by the time they got here. 

That's an awfully long time for us to avoid a hurricane. And puts New Englanders out of practice as to how to deal with a hurricane. True, we get big nor'easters which are also intense storms, but hurricanes usually have worse storm surges, more intense winds and heavier rain that nor'easters. 

That 1991 Hurricane Bob is an example of what an happen with a New England hurricane. It was a category two storm at landfall in Rhode Island. The storm killed more than a dozen people and caused $1.5 billion in damage. 

Any hurricane hitting New England would probably be as bad as Hurricane Bob, really. 

OTHER STORMS

While we were focusing on Lee, two other tropical systems have been bubbling along.  For a time Hurricane Margot was moving north in tandem with Lee, but it was several hundred miles to the east of that system. Since then, Margot has declined into a tropical storm, and should completely fall apart in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean today or tomorrow.

Elsewhere, as the old, obnoxious song by XTC goes, we're only making plans for Nigel.  But not that many plans, since Tropical Storm Nigel so far doesn't appear to be much of a threat, either. Nigel is expected to quickly grow into a hurricane, and a fairly strong one at that. But it will move north through the central Atlantic Ocean and poses no threat to the United States or Canada.

Another cluster of thunderstorms is forecast to move westward off the coast of Africa this week and that one will probably grow into a tropical storm or hurricane. It's way, way, way too soon to know what that thing will do.  

Hurricane Lee Closing In On Nova Scotia, Maine

Satellite view from just before dawn shows the first big
band of high clouds from Hurricane Lee approaching
Vermont from the east. 

 You're going to hear about Hurricane Lee "weakening" into a tropical storm or gradually transitioning to a non-tropical system.  

All technically true, but conditions in Nova Scotia and probably eastern Maine are going to devolve into the conditions you'd find in a Category 1 hurricane or strong tropical storm. 

It's going to be messy up there. 

Actually, tropical storm warnings are up for all of the immediate east facing coastline of New England, and that big chunk of eastern Maine. 

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, they're bracing for storm surges and flooding, but the biggest hazard up there will be those winds that will cause a lot of power outages. Residents have been told to expect outages that could last for days. 

Here in Vermont the Lee forecast is steady state.  Today, we'll see high clouds increase from the south and east. On Saturday, we're still expecting a cloudy, windy day.  Depending on where you are, gusts during Saturday should peak in the 30 to 40 mph range, while sustained winds between gusts will probably be 15 to 20 mph.

It's going to be on the rough on Lake Champlain, with waves on the broad lake up to three feet. So it won't be a great day up there. 

If you're hiking tomorrow, hang on to your hat! Gusts could reach as high as 60 mph on the summits of the Green Mountains. 

So Vermont all in all is still looking at a close shave, but no biggie from Lee. We got lucky. 

We might get lucky from Lee in another respect. I told you how it will the storm will create a high level overcast. Depending on how far west the high cloud shield gets, we have a shot of seeing spectacular sunsets, possibly both this evening and Saturday, too.   

If the dge of the clouds is somewhere in central New York or something like that, the setting sun would light up the high overcast into a wildly colorful evening.  No promises on that, but it's a possibility. 

We've got some additional nice "traditional" September weather coming  up. Sunday will be gorgeous (sunshine and 70).  There might be a little rain Monday and perhaps early Tuesday, but we get into a pretty long, mild, dry stretch of weather after that. 

You know how those storms would seem to stall over us all summer?  This time, a dry, sunny high pressure system will stall around us for a few days. That will be a nice change for sure.  

Vermont Finally Finds Autumn, Will Get Breezy As Hurricane Lee Blows By To East

Satellite view of large Hurricane Lee heading northward
off the East Coast, headed to Nova Scotia or the eastern
tip of Maine by Saturday.

 Southern New England, lately in the cross hairs of severe weather, got socked again Wednesday with more floods and even some reports of possible tornadoes.  

The tornadoes aren't confirmed yet, but evidence is pretty strong that there might have been one or more twisters in Connecticut, Rhode Island and possibly southeastern Massachusetts.

Video taken at a small airport in Smithfield, Rhode Island showed what appeared to be a tornado on the ground. In Scituate, Rhode Island, trees fell in opposite directions, a sign of a possible tornado.

If a tornado is confirmed in Scituate, Rhode Island, it would be the second time in a month the town was hit by a twister. Rhode Island: Tornado Alley. Go figure.

Here in Vermont, we just had some rain showers Wednesday, no biggie.

HURRICANE LEE

Wednesday's bad weather is pretty much out of New England, and now everybody is watching Hurricane Lee, and getting sick of it. At least the vigil is almost over. 

The forecasts for Lee have been pretty consistent, bringing it ashore Saturday in western Nova Scotia. There's still a chance it could land on the nearby eastern tip of Maine. 

The upper Maine coast is under a hurricane watch for the first time since Hurricane Kyle threatened the state in 2008. Hurricane Kyle took a similar path to what is expected out of Lee.  It causes hurricane force gusts in Nova Scotia and produced some flooding in eastern Maine. 

It looks like Hurricane Lee will be something of a rinse and repeat of Kyle. 

Tropical storm watches and warnings extend along most of the New England coast. 

Hurricane Lee will be transitioning to a non-tropical system by the time it reaches Maine or Nova Scotia. Also, top winds might - or might not - be just below hurricane speeds.

Nevertheless the storm spells a lot of trouble on Cape Cod and the Islands, and especially Downeast Maine, Nova Scotia and parts of New Brunswick. 

Nova Scotia in particular does not need this storm.  The Canadian Province is still reeling from destructive wildfires in May and June, extreme flooding in July, and damage from Hurricane Fiona last year. 

With soggy ground and trees still leafed out, officials in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick expect lots of long lasting power outages as many of those trees topple onto power lines.

Eastern Maine is likely to see flooding as well

Hurricane Lee is a large storm with a big zone of strong winds. And storms like Lee that move north into New England or Atlantic Canada tend to grow even larger, so a pretty big area will likely see some tropical storm force gusts.

VERMONT EFFECTS

We're still expecting a windy, rather cloudy Saturday here in the Green Mountain State. The western edge of that large wind field from Hurricane Lee will overspread our area. Many of us, especially for people east of the Green  Mountains could see gusts in the 30 to 35 mph range.

That's not terrible. But since the ground is so soggy and we haven't had much wind this summer, those gusts might take down an isolated tree or two. There might even be a few local, brief power outages, but I don't expect that to be a big deal.

Larger lakes, especially Lake Champlain could have some issues with waves and choppy seas, so Saturday is the wrong day for a boat ride on the lake. Try Sunday. It'll be sunnier and calmer.

A little rain from Hurricane Lee might spread into the Northeast Kingdom, but it won't amount to much. 

Hurricanes are big heat pumps, sending lots of warm air into the the upper atmosphere. Up there, it's like automobile exhaust on a cold winter day, when you see steam coming out of everybody's tail pipe.

The warm, wet air will create steam of sort, which will take the form of a large shield of high level overcast extending far outward from the center of Hurricane Lee.. There might be a little dim sun coming through that high overcast Saturday, but it probably won't be a bright sunny day. 

Meanwhile, yesterday's cold front finally flushed out the humid air we've been dealing with since around September 3, so it finally eels like early autumn. 

That trend will continue all weekend, with nice weather, except for the Hurricane Lee interruption on Saturday. 

For once, it also looks like we have a long period of mostly dry weather coming up. As it looks now, anyway, there might be jus a bit of light rain next Monday, then little or no rain for about a week after that.  

Today's Storm Sputters A Bit For Vermont, Hurricane Lee Still Churning

Hurricane Lee northeast of the Bahamas this morning
is expected to move north and make landfall in 
Nova Scotia or possibly the eastern tip
of Maine on Saturday.

 About five days ago, the weather forecasting computer models were flashing a bit of a danger signal for Vermont today. Those prognostications suggested we might see some torrential rains and flooding. 

The reality - at least for Vermont -  is pffft.  Yes, it's definitely raining out there, and that should continue for most of the day. But it will never come down hard enough to cause any real flooding. Just another soggy day in a long string of them this year. 

Unfortunately, though, there has to be a victim with this storm and that's southern New England. The deep moisture that was originally supposed to affect Vermont is mostly stuck down in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

They've had rounds of flash flooding over the past few days, and more is happening today. Already, before 9 a.m. today, flash flood and severe thunderstorm warnings were flashing in Connecticut, and that looks like it will spread into Massachusetts soon. 

Radar images at 8:45 a.m. suggested those storms might eventually up in central Massachusetts, which suffered some extreme flash flooding Monday. So the news isn't good. 

Back here in Vermont, there might be some rumbles of thunder and some briefly heavy downpours, but that's about it. After ten days of either extremely or kinda humid air, we're finally going to see a taste of crisp, dry air that September should be famous for. 

This cooler air mass won't exactly scream "autumn" but it will be the coolest air we've seen in awhile (Highs in the 60s to around 70, lows in the 40s to around 50 Thursday and Friday. Pretty standard for September. 

Then we watch Hurricane Lee go by

HURRICANE LEE

Forecasts for the future path of Hurricane Lee have ticked a bit westward since yesterday, but it still doesn't look like it will screw up Vermont all that much. 

Lee will pass by Cape Cod and the Islands Late Friday night or very early Saturday morning. Coastal southern New England  can expect some storm surges, battering waves, beach erosion, gusty winds and maybe spells of heavy rain.  It won't be a good time on Cape Cod at all.

From there, Hurricane Lee looks like it might head north, making landfall in extreme eastern Maine or far western Nova Scotia during the day Saturday. 

Though Lee won't be as powerful as it once was, it could still have top winds of 80 mph at landfall, along with storm surges and torrential rain.

Tides are normally awfully extreme in the Bay of Fundy, so it will be interesting to see what Hurricane Lee does there. 

For us in Vermont, Hurricane Lee will provide a rather cloudy, windy Saturday.  Winds shouldn't be strong enough to be damaging, but it will be a change of pace for us. Other than in strong thunderstorm gusts, we've had a remarkable lack of wind for the past three months or so. 

North winds Saturday could gust as high as 30 mph and even a little higher than that in the Connecticut Valley. Winds on ridge lines could gust to 45 mph, the National Weather Service says. 

Winds of this magnitude shouldn't cause any real trouble, but hang on to your hat. 

Light showers from Lee might make it into eastern areas, especially the Northeast Kingdom.

Do note if the westward trend in Lee's expected path continues, it could make Saturdays in Vermont  just a bit windier and a bit wetter than currently expected. 

We're still looking safe from any new weather disasters with Lee, though, so that's great. 

Nova Scotia: From Burning Down To Drowning In Epic Flood

Nova Scotia, Canada is the latest place to suffer 
through severe flooding. Four people are missing after
up to 10 inches of rain fell in a day. 

 Remember back in May and early June, when Nova Scotia was burning down, destroying something like 200 houses and sending smoke down the United States East Coast?

I suppose the "good" news is the Nova Scotia fires are out. 

However, there isn't any truly good news coming out of Nova Scotia. They've just had a flood that is at least as bad, if not worse the the huge inundation we in Vermont just experienced.

At last report, four people, including two children, were missing in the flood.

As Reuters reports: 

"The storm, which started on Friday, dumped more than...10 inches on some parts in just 24 hours - the same amount that usually lands in three months. The resulting floods washed away roads, weakened bridges and swamped buildings."

Rain continued on Saturday but is finally tapering off in Atlantic Canada. 

It has been a bad year for weather disasters in Canada. Says Reuters:

"The flooding was the latest weather-related calamity to pound Canada this year. Wildfires have already burned a record number of hectares, sending clouds of smoke into the United States. Earlier this month, heavy rains caused floods in several eastern U.S. states."

It seems like Nova Scotia, a beautiful coastal province that is a magnet for tourists, can't catch a break.  As NPR reports:

"'Some of the same residents that were impacted by the wildfires are now dealing with the flooding, Halifax Councillor Lisa Blackburn told NPR."

 On top of that, Hurricane Fiona caused extensive damage in Nova Scotia, along with Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland last September. 

The same weather pattern that afflicted Vermont with floods is essentially responsible for the Nova Scotia floods. That weather pattern is breaking down, which shifted the heavy rains associated with it further east, into Atlantic Canada. The fire hose of wet, humid air slammed into Nova Scotia. 

All these weather crises in Nova Scotia are consistent with climate change. The hurricane last September maintained its strength as far north as Canada because unusually warm Atlantic waters fed it. 

The fires in May were encouraged by a very early snow melt and record high temperatures during the spring, which dried things out. 

The rainfall Friday in Nova Scotia was probably enhanced by now record high ocean temperatures off the coast.  Warmer than normal air is more efficient at picking up moisture from those toasty Atlantic waters helping to encourage the extreme downpours. 

Video: Drone view of Bedford, Nova Scotia. Click on this link to view or click on image below: 

Wildfire Smoke And Record Heat Loom In Vermont This Week

One of the large wildfires burning in Nova Scotia on Monday.

 Ahh, yesterday, Memorial Day, was much better than Sunday in Vermont weather, at least in my opinion. 

Both days featured wall to wall sunshine, but as expected, Monday was quite a bit cooler.  Highs made into the 70s instead of the upper 80s, and a breeze kept the dry air refreshing. That near constant wildfire smoke up in the atmosphere from Canadian wildfires was at a minimum, too.

So much for that. It's back to possible smoke and definite heat for the upcoming week. 

Today won't be so bad, as temperatures climb into the low 80s amid more sunshine and dry air.

The weather pattern is frankly wonky, so things won't be acting the way they should during the middle of the week. We normally expect weather systems to move generally west to east in our neck of the woods. 

But this being a weird spring, we can't have that!  So, we face the risk of smoke coming in from the east, and record heat moving north to south from, yes, chilly Canada of all places. 

SMOKE

First, the smoke risk. It's not as definitely in the forecast as the heat, but it's still pretty likely.  As you might have heard on the news, there's some terrible wildfires in New Brunswick and especially Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Two large wildfires are burning in Nova Scotia. One, west of Halifax, has forced the evacuation of 16,000 people and damaged or destroyed at least 200 homes and other structures so far. 

Another, larger fire was burning in the a less heavily populated area near the southern tip of Nova Scotia. 

Large smoke plume seen on satellite photos
on Monday coming off of Nova Scotia. The smoke
eventually turned east toward New England.

At last report both fires were still out of control. A third large fire also reportedly broke out in Nova Scotia Monday. 

Amid a normal weather pattern, all that smoke from Nova Scotia would head eastward out into the open Atlantic.

Instead, there's warm high pressure over southeastern Canada. That's creating east winds on the southern edge of that high pressure to propel the smoke eventually toward New England. 

It looks like it will hit southern New England today, then slowly curl northward into northern New England, including Vermont later tonight and tomorrow. 

For most of this month, the smoke we've seen from even bigger fires up in Alberta, Canada have been high aloft. It created hazy skies, but no real air pollution problems from us down here on the ground. 

The Nova Scotia smoke will be closer to the ground, so you might actually smell smoke and we could see some air quality problems. The smoke looks like it will be more dense in southern New England and dissipate somewhat once it gets here. 

The smoke will tend to clear out at least somewhat by afternoon, which leads us to the heat wave.

RECORD HOT?

Temperatures should soar to the upper 80s Wednesday afternoon. Both the ground and the air are very dry, so that tends to make hot spells over-perform. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more 90 degree readings than currently forecast. The record high tomorrow in Burlington is 91 degrees, so we'll come close. 

Thursday looks to be the hottest day. The record high on Thursday in Burlington is 90 degrees, set in 2011 and tied in 2013.  The National Weather Service office in South Burlington gives us about a 90 percent chance of breaking that record.  

Friday looks hot, too, with an expected high near 90 degrees.

As mentioned, this is a weird hot spell. The hottest air has built up inside a persistent stubborn, strong heat ridge in southern Canada. The core of the hottest air will ride the northern edge of this ridge, then come down on us from Ontario and Quebec. This, of course, is normally where our cold spells come from.

Also, unlike a "normal" heat wave, the air will be quite dry, which will help exacerbate the building drought conditions we're experiencing. 

Go figure. A cold front later Friday should touch off some showers and thunderstorms. But they will be kind of scattered, and not last long in any given area. So we won't get much needed rain out of this. 

By the way, it's not just Nova Scotia that is at risk for more forest fires. There's a high fire danger in Vermont all week due to the dry heat we're experiencing.  So be careful with any flames, please! 

It's A Chilly September Day, Could Be Worse. Also, Tropical Trouble Update

Golden evening light and dark clouds behind a sharp
autumn cold front Thursday in St. Albans, Vermont. 

 As expected, it's chilly today, probably the coldest Vermont day we've seen since the end of April. 

Of course, that's not to say the cool breezes, the morning clouds, the risk of mountain top snow flurries and the chances of pockets of frost tonight are unusual.  

I actually did see video of it snowing in Lake Placid, New York this morning. All this is par for the course for late September. 

Maybe less so than in the past, but still, we're blasting through autumn, heading for winter. 

Under the climate change "new normal" we're currently in, this month looks like it's going to work out to something you should expect in September in our now- altered world.  It'll be a contrast to recent record hot Septembers, so I guess you can enjoy the fact you haven't roasted this month. 

However, by historical standards, this September would definitely be warmer than what would have been expected. 

Cool snaps like we're having now, or even near record cold will will continue to happen in September once in awhile. But over the years, they'll gradually become less frequent, or not as chilly as the weather we're having now. 

As recently as the 1960s and 1970s, frost was pretty common even in the Champlain Valley in late September. The record lows in Burlington this week are pretty much all in the mid to upper 20s. 

You can feel the chill in the air just looking at this 
photo in St. Albans, Vermont Thursday after a 
sharp autumn cold front passed through. 

So it could be worse.

As for frost, the best chances of tonight are over the Adirondacks and southern Vermont. 

You'd think the Northeast Kingdom would be under the gun for frost, and it will be close up there. But the wind should continue to blow from the northwest overnight. 

The strongest winds will be east of the Green Mountains. Nothing scary, just a breeze, really.  

That potentially frost-preventing breeze tonight in the Northeast Kingdom has everything to do with Hurricane Fiona

HURRICANE FIONA

Rare hurricane warnings are up in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of Newfoundland, Canada.

Environment Canada is telling residents of these areas to be prepared for winds exceeding 100 mph in some spots, with the risk of structural damage. Serious flooding, storm surge, coastal erosion are all in play as Fiona races northward toward Canada tonight and into tomorrow. 

One good way to measure a storm's strength is to look at how low the air pressure is at the storm's center.  Fiona has the potential to be the strongest storm in history to  hit anywhere in Canada, if you measure by central air pressure. Some forecasts have Fiona's air pressure at 930 millibars when it makes landfall in eastern Nova Scotia tomorrow\. The record strongest storm in Canada had a central air pressure of 940 millibars.

Fiona, as it heads north, will be gradually turning from a tropical system to a non-tropical low. Which means it will expand in size to engulf a large area.  High wind warnings extend as far west as Down East Maine. 

THE NEXT ONE

A tropical depression  has formed in the Central Caribbean Sea, as expected. This is one to watch, because there's a high chance it will eventually turn into a hurricane. It also has a strong chance of eventually hitting the United States.

We just don't know where yet.  If it does hit the U.S., the best I can narrow it down to is anywhere between Houston and Florida. Or possibly the Southeastern U.S.  As the storm develops, forecasters will begin to be able to narrow down the risk zone. 

Other World Weather News: Madagascar Cyclone, More South American Heat, Canadian Ice

Cyclone Batsirai bearing down on 
Madagascar this past weekend. 

While we contend with winter storms here and there in the United States, other parts of the world continue to tally their own weather disasters and extremes.  

MADAGASCAR HURRICANE

A cyclone, which is what a hurricane is called in the Indian Ocean, on Saturday struck  Madagascar, the island nation off the east coast of Africa. 

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai with winds of up to 115 mph and torrential rains slammed into the central east coast, killing at least 20 people and causing widespread damage. Emergency workers said the death toll will almost certainly rise a lot more.  

The storm was the equivalent of aa Category 3 hurricane. 

It had been packing winds of up to 145 mph Thursday as it cruised through the Indian Ocean, headed toward Madagascar. That island is still trying to recover from extensive flooding from Tropical Storm Ana a few weeks ago.

As Batsirai passed by, an incredible 56 inches of rain fell in one spot on Reunion Island within 72 hours. That island is notorious for freaky rains. Reunion holds the world record for most rain within 24 hours - 71.8 inches in January, 1966. For perspective, is normally takes nearly two years to accumulate that much rain here in Vermont. 

Madagascar does have a history with tropical cyclones, as it averages one hit per year. The problem is, the hits are getting harder. 

The nation of 28 million people has been hit by 12 landfalling storms of Category 4 or greater, but eight of those have struck since the year 2000, notes CNN.

While this one was a Category 2 storm, the fact that this one comes on the heels of another tropical cyclone a few weeks ago makes this one all the worse.  

ECUADOR MUDSLIDE

Winter is summer south of the Equator and that part of South America has had a terrible summer of alternating heat waves and vicious storms.

One of the latest hit the capital of Ecuador with immense mudslides in torrential rains. The disaster killed at least 24 people and injures more than four dozen others, reports the Washington Post.

Numerous homes collapsed or were carried away by mud and water

NOVA SCOTIA ICE 

Damaging ice storm in Nova Scotia last weekend.

Storms don't stop at borders. Last week, a crippling ice storm cut power and damaged trees from Texas to New York. The ice kept going into southeastern Canada after leaving New England Friday, and dealt a messy blow to Nova Scotia.  

The storm cut power to 53,000 Nova Scotians and plenty of branches and trees collapsed under the weight of the ice. 

ICELAND/GREENLAND BLAST

The storm that hit the United States from Texas to Maine with snow and ice, then Nova Scotia, as I described above did not actually have a strong center of low pressure.  It had boatloads of moisture, which is why precipitation was so heavy. But the storm center itself wasn't that strong.

Until it was. Once the storm rolled past Nova Scotia it blew up to become the strongest storm of the season in the North Atlantic. That's saying something, because there's tons of wicked strong winter storms in the North Atlantic

The center of this thing went up to between Greenland and Iceland. It blasted southern Greenland and Iceland with hurricane-force winds in spots, blizzards, along with storm surges and destructive coastal waves.

The storm cut power to swaths of Iceland, including parts of the capital Reykjavik as winds gusted to as high as 90 mph on parts of the island. Repairs to power lines were slowed by lightning, which is quite rare in Iceland, especially in the winter.