HALIFAX — A hurricane watch has been issued for southern Nova Scotia as hurricane Earl storms towards Atlantic Canada.
The hurricane watch means that Queens, Shelburne, Yarmouth and Digby counties can expect winds gusts of up to 130 kilometres-an-hour with the arrival of the storm, expected Saturday morning.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre says Earl appears to have shuffled slightly to the west, but a definitive track remains hard to pinpoint given that the storm is about two days away.
Forecaster Chris Fogarty says Earl could make landfall in the southwestern corner of Nova Scotia or near Grand Manan Island off New Brunswick.
The hurricane centre says warmer-than-usual water temperatures south of Nova Scotia could help sustain Earl’s strength as a Category 1 storm, meaning winds between 119 km/h and 152 km/h.
The centre has also extended a tropical storm watch to Halifax and communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that sit along the Bay of Fundy.
Those areas may see winds of up to 90 km/h.
The centre says the Maritime provinces could see as much as 70 millimetres of rain.