Cat-4 Fiona bears down on Bermuda now, Canada later; new system watched

Hurricane Fiona hit category four and is bearing down on Bermuda for Thursday (September 22) and posing weekend threats to the Canadian coast, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned in its latest update.

“The centre of Fiona will pass just to the west of Bermuda tonight, approach Nova Scotia on Friday, and move across Nova Scotia and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday,” the NHC said in its update at 02:00 EDT.

Fiona was 545 miles (875 km) southwest of Bermuda as of that update and heading north at 10 degrees at a speed of 10 mph (17 km/h).

Fiona, currently bearing 130 mph (215 km/h) maximum sustained windspeeds, is expected to accelerate late Thursday and Friday before slowing in its approach to Canada.

A Hurricane Watch and Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect for Bermuda where tropical storm conditions are expected and hurricane conditions "possible" by this evening (September 22) including 2 to 4 inches of rainfall.

Early indications suggest 3 to 6 inches of rainfall for Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and western Newfoundland, with local maximum up to 10 inches, opening the door to “areas of flooding, some of which may be significant in nature”. Eastern Quebec might expect 2 to 5 inches and New Brunswick 1 to 3 inches.

Fiona is not the only system going. Tropical storm Gaston continues to tear up the north-central Atlantic on an east-northeast course to nowhere.

A disturbance in the southwestern Caribbean is said to have a 70% chance of cyclone formation within 48 hours and 90% over the coming five days as it tracks east-northeast. Two other disturbances lie further east.

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