While Hurricane Erin is not expected to come close to land in the Maritimes, it is still likely to play havoc on both land and sea in Nova Scotia.
Global News meteorologist Ross Hull said that the hurricane’s effects will be felt in the area on Friday.
“Even though Erin is moving well to the south of the area, it is such a large storm that some impacts will be felt mainly from large ocean swells, rough surf, as well as rip currents for the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia,” Hull explained.
“There is the potential for waves to reach 4 to 5 metres especially over southwestern parts of Nova Scotia.”
He said that winds are also expected to be stronger along the coastline.
“Some gusty winds up to 70 km/h could also reach the coastline in the southwestern coast of Nova Scotia on Friday,” Hull offered.
Fire crews are racing against the clock to prepare for the hurricane’s effects as they continue battling a large wildfire raging in Annapolis Valley.
“The winds won’t be as strong more inland where the Long Lake wildfire is in Annapolis County,” Hull said.
“However, winds will be picking up out of the northeast initially with some gusts 40 to 50 km/h. Then after the storm passes to the south, a change in wind direction, becoming a west/northwest wind but easing in intensity on Saturday.”
He added, “the gusty winds along with the changing wind direction could pose some challenges to firefighters.”
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Winds of 50 km/h will certainly cause the fire to “move or spread,” Jim Rutterham, director of fleet and forest protection, told reporters on Thursday.
“We are expecting wind tomorrow. It’s like how much rain we’re going to get — we’re going to have to wait till tomorrow comes,” he said.
For the past couple of days, provincial officials have reported that the fire has remained about 3,200 hectares in size but they know Hurricane Erin could be an issue.
They have a meteorologist and a fire growth modeler on staff who are keeping a tab on the fire and trying to plot its course.
“They’re assessing the fuels — the weather, the topography — and doing their very best to try to map and model what this fire might do given the weather conditions,” Scott Tingley, manager of forest protection, said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We also have a fire behaviour analyst who’s supporting the data collection right at the fire site.
“You know, there are a lot of variables but we’ve definitely got a very strong team that’s working on providing the best intelligence to the team that is managing the fire.”
There are about 74 homes on the north end of the fire in West Dalhousie which have been evacuated since last Saturday. Those fighting the blaze have been working to prevent the fire from getting at the structures.
They have also been doubling down on those efforts with Hurricane Erin fast approaching.
“They’ve been using heavy equipment to build a fire break or fire guard out around the perimeter on the north side,” Tingley said Thursday. “So that’s meant to remove fuel from out in front of the fire, and they’ve been suppressing that active perimeter.”
It has been forecast that the wind will shift on Sunday which would push the fire in a northerly direction.
“They’re focusing on just really trying to make that as cold as they can ahead of these wind shifts in the weekend to mitigate as much as possible any potential spread that could result from the wind shifts,” Tingley offered.
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