CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — While hurricane Teddy isn’t expected to make landfall in the Maritimes until Wednesday morning, there is a lot of weather ahead of the system that will be felt today.
Cindy Day, chief meteorologist with the SaltWire Network, held a media briefing Tuesday morning, saying that the system will be downgraded to a post-tropical storm by the time it impacts P.E.I.
Winds have been picking up across P.E.I. today, gusting out of the northeast to 41 km/h.
Around 3 p.m. today, gusts are expected to climb to 70 km/h, increasing to 90 km/h just after sunset.
That will be followed by what Day says is a lull. Winds will diminish to around 40 km/h after midnight before climbing again on Wednesday.
Winds will be out of the northwest, gusting to 80 km/h and remain strong throughout the day.
“You’re going to see some pretty strong wind gusts as the system blows through,’’ Day said.
Winds are expected to diminish to between 30 and 40 km/h by late Wednesday night.
The province is also looking at between 60 and 80 millimetres of rain but Day said there won’t be much of a storm surge to worry about.
“Because of the direction of the system and the wind it will be typical with what you’d get from a weather system that comes through in the fall, for example."
Kim Griffin, corporate spokeswoman with Maritime Electric, said the utility is in full outage readiness mode.
“It’s all hands on deck,’’ Griffin said, noting that they have about 20 crews on standby.
“The foliage (on the trees) is a huge concern for us, from a post tropical (storm) perspective. We’re very concerned about the potential weather coming our way.’’
Expanding on that point, Griffin said the ground is considered soft and could contribute to downed trees, especially those weakened by last year’s post tropical storm, Dorian.
And, depending on the need, Griffin said the utility has also been talking to contractors inside and outside the Atlantic bubble but will be following all health protocols.
“We have to make sure we are cautious around who comes in and making sure as they get here we’ve got all the proper paperwork and procedures and protocol in place which is what we’ve been working on since late last week, in the event that we need others.’’
When Day held her media briefing late Tuesday morning, Teddy was still classified as a category 2 hurricane with sustained winds at 165 km/h.
It was moving northwest at 44 km/h, quickly transitioning to a category 1 and then to a post-tropical storm by the time its effects are felt in the Maritimes.
The cloud cover for Teddy is impressive, stretching from Cape Cod, the hook-shaped peninsula in Massachusetts to the Avalon peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, a distance of about 1,500 kilometres.
As of this afternoon, P.E.I. is under a tropical storm watch and a rainfall warning.
