A senior forecaster at the Canadian Hurricane Centre says a late-season hurricane headed up the eastern seaboard won’t likely have a direct impact on Nova Scotia.
However, Bob Robichaud says Sandy is powerful enough to be of concern, regardless of where it makes landfall.
“The important thing as we go into the weekend is to keep a very close eye on the forecast because there’s still a fairly wide range of scenarios that are possible here,” said CHC meterologist Bob Robichaud.
Robichaud says most models currently show the Category 2 storm zigzagging along the eastern seaboard and then making an unusual westward turn towards land.
“That’s where the variability lies, some computer models indicate it may be as far south as south of New Jersey, there’s some other ones showing in the extreme that it could be much further up the northeast U.S.,” he said. “So pretty much everywhere in between is still a possibility now.”
Regardless of where Sandy makes landfall in that window, Robichaud says the circulation is large enough to bring some rain and wind to Nova Scotia and parts of Quebec and Ontario.
Robichaud says Sandy will likely be a post-tropical storm by the time it gets anywhere near Atlantic Canada, but shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“From time to time you see a post-tropical storm that’s more intense than the original tropical storm, and this is one of these cases where it is a very powerful post-tropical storm,” he said.
