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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hurricane Earl

During the past few years, Canada has had to deal with five or six hurricanes a year. There is really no way to accurately predict how many storms in the Atlantic will affect Canada. The predictions for this year say that we will have an active hurricane season with up to five large storms in the Atlantic Canada region between August and November. So the question is – Was Earl the last because it was the fifth named storm or the first of five large storms to sweep into our region?

A hurricane is formed by a group of thunderstorms that circle around each other and form a vortex. This group of thunderstorms continues to spin in tight formation until, in the centre, the eye is formed. The meteorologist watch the eye to see when and where the hurricane will make land fall since this is where the hurricane will pack the greatest punch. Earl landed on the South Shore near and definitely affected the areas around Halifax and Lunenburg.

The winds were very strong in the Amherst Shore area causing the trees to bend from the force. At around 2:00 there was absolute silence. The wind had completely stopped blowing and there was the eerie feeling of “what just happened”?

The resident’s nearby began to cleanup any downed branches from trees and inspect their properties for damage. By this time the power was out. At 3:00p.m. I received a phone call from my cousin in Ottawa that was watching CNN and the announcers described where Earl was and where he was heading. The eye or the centre of the storm was directly over – Amherst Shore. They stated that as soon as the eye area had passed we would be in for round two of the winds. This did happen but thankfully Earl had blown himself out over land and the winds were not as strong as they were during the first part of his windy event.

Imagine – Amherst Shore was being described on CNN and we all missed it because the power was out and the weather channel who was supposed to keep our local stations up-to-date was busy describing the area around Halifax and not letting us know what was happening in other parts of the province. Oh, the shame of it - caught without the story by CNN.

The Gulf Stream becomes an important factor when predicting Hurricanes in our region. Scientists know that the ocean has been warming up on a yearly basis due to more heat in the atmosphere. This has an effect on all storms from thunderstorms to hurricanes.

In Nova Scotia, we can expect warmer average temperatures, higher sea levels, more extreme rainfalls and storm flooding, and more-frequent and extreme storms. Preparing for these changes poses particular challenges in Nova Scotia because most of our population lives along the coastline.

Hurricane Earl may have been a bit of a dud in some areas of the province including the Town of Amherst but continued vigilance of these storms and preparations will become very important for everyone.

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