Tropical Storm Gabrielle to bring heavy rain to Atlantic provinces, as Humberto becomes first hurricane of season

Tropical Storm Gabrielle is expected to bring rainfall and winds to the Atlantic provinces, while the season’s first hurricane has also begun to form.

As of the 11 a.m. AST advisory from the National Hurricane Center in the United States, the storm was about 90 km west of Bermuda.

“The storm’s maximum sustained winds weakened to 80 km/h (50 mph), although tropical storm force wind gusts could continue to affect Bermuda for the next few hours, especially at higher elevations,” noted Scott Stransky, senior scientist at catastrophe modeller AIR Worldwide.

“The storm is expected to produce between 25 and 75 mm (1 and 3 inches) of rain over Bermuda, and the island will continue to experience rough surf today as well as a storm surge of 0.6 to 0.9 meters (2 to 3 feet).”

The Bermuda Weather Service discontinued its tropical storm warning for Bermuda Wednesday morning and the storm caused few disruptions, AIR said.

“Gabrielle is barely hanging on as a tropical cyclone and is not expected to gain strength as it moves slowly northwestward later today and through tonight before gradually moving north-northeastward tomorrow toward Canada’s Maritime Provinces,” Stransky added.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre reported Wednesday afternoon that the storm would interact with a cold front from New England and bring heavy rainfall to New Brunswick over the next 48 hours.

Moving northward on Thursday, the storm is expected to bring heavy rain over Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and western Newfoundland as early as Friday, the centre said, adding that it doesn’t expect significant storm surge from Gabrielle.

Meanwhile, the first hurricane of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season—Hurricane Humberto—developed Wednesday morning.

“Humberto developed maximum sustained winds of 120 km/h (75 mph) to just barely qualify as a hurricane this morning,” Dr. Tim Doggett, senior principal scientist at AIR Worldwide noted in a statement Wednesday.

“It is moving north-northwestward at 13 km/h (8 mph) and is located in the far Eastern Atlantic. It is not expected to come near land and should weaken after about a day when it encounters increased wind shear, cooler waters, and drier air,” he added.