Fiona, now a post-tropical storm, continues to bring in powerful and destructive winds to parts of the Maritimes with hundreds of thousands of people without power.
The storm landed east of Nova Scotia shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday in Nova Scotia’s Guysborough County between Canso and Guysborough.
Fiona is the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane, with maximum winds around 150 km/h.
Sustained winds between 60 and 80 km/h were reported early Saturday morning for large areas of Nova Scotia. Extremely high winds were reported in areas of Cape Breton, including Grand Etang with gusts topping 167 km/h.
P.E.I. is also being battered with destructive winds with gusts in excess of 140 km/h for eastern areas of the province.
As of 7 a.m., more than 400,000 NS Power customers were without electricity. More than 44,000 people in New Brunswick are also in the dark, and more than 82,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power on P.E.I.
Widespread wind gusts in excess of 100 km/h continue to be reported in the Halifax-area and are extending eastwards into the province. Downed trees and power lines are being reported in Halifax, and sections of roof came off of one building in Dartmouth, N.S.
Initial rainfall reports in the east of Nova Scotia are in excess of 200 millimetres, which includes rain amounts from a system that moved through the Maritimes on Friday. Heavy rains have also wrapped back towards to eastern coastline of New Brunswick, as well as northern and southwestern areas of Nova Scotia.
Unofficially, Fiona has set a new all-time record of barometric pressure for a storm system coming into Canada, which happened in Hart Island at 931.6 mb – the previous record was set at 940.2 mb in St. Anthony, N.L.
The most up-to-date weather warnings and watches can be found on Environment Canada's website.
This is a developing story. More to come...
