Hurricane Fiona hits the Atlantic coast of Canada with strong winds and rain

(CNN) – The Hurricane Fionanow known as a post-tropical cyclone, made landfall in Nova Scotia and across Canada’s Atlantic coast early Saturday in what could be a “historic” weather event for the country.

An unofficial atmospheric pressure of 931.6 megabytes was recorded on Hart Island, making Fiona the lowest landfall storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center. Wind observations were recorded on Beaver Island in eastern Nova Scotia at 152 km/h (94 mph).

Parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island began to feel the storm approaching Saturday morning as winds and rain spread far from the storm’s epicenter, bringing utility services to a standstill. More than 376,000 customers across Nova Scotia have been without power so far, according to the area’s Blackout Center.

Residents of New Brunswick, southern Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador also experience inclement weather as Fiona heads north at more than 40 mph (65 km/h) after making landfall between Canso and Jesboro in eastern Nova Scotia. Fiona is expected to pass Cape Breton Island on Saturday morning and reach the southeast Labrador Sea in the evening.

“The storm is producing strong winds and very heavy rain,” he said. Canadian Hurricane Center before hitting the ground. Broad winds of 80-110 km/h (50-68 mph) have been reported so far over Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Isles de la Madeleine, with a maximum of 144 km/h (90 mph) over Beaver Island. , Nova Scotia.

Fiona weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm on Friday, but it can still bring devastating storms, heavy rain and strong winds. Fiona was a Category 4 storm early Wednesday over the Atlantic after passing the Turks and Caicos Islands and remained that way until Friday afternoon.

Officials along the Atlantic coast have urged those in Fiona Road to be on high alert and prepare for the impact of the storm, which has already killed at least five people and caused a million outages.Hit several Caribbean islands this week. Homes and water infrastructure in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Turks and Caicos Islands have been severely damaged, and many residents are still trying to recover.

Meteorologists in Canada said Friday that Fiona is on track to become a “severe weather event” in eastern Canada, threatening two months of rain.

“This could be a historic event for Canada in terms of tropical cyclone intensity,” said Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Center, and it could become Canada’s version of Superstorm Sandy. Sandy affected 24 states and the entire East Coast in 2012, causing damage estimated at US$78.7 billion.

Fiona became post-tropical before landfall, arriving at the same time as low pressure and cold air to the north, as did Sandy, according to Bob Rubishod of the Canadian Hurricane Center.

Sandbags were placed around the doors of the Nova Scotia Power Building in Halifax prior to Fiona’s arrival.

“What these things do is they tend to grow exponentially in size, which Fiona does as well,” he explained on Friday. “Sandy was bigger than expected for Fiona. But the process is basically the same: two traits feeding on each other to create a powerful storm like the one we’ll see overnight.”

Georgina Scott surveys the damage to her street in Halifax on Saturday, September 24, 2022.

Hurricane-force winds can extend up to about 300 kilometers from the center of Fiona and tropical storm winds up to 555 kilometers, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

CNN’s Derek Van Damme, Halle Brink, Aya El Amrousy, Theresa Waldrop and Christina Maxuris contributed to this report.