Environment

Hurricane Kyle heads toward Canada

by Amy Judd | September 28, 2008 at 11:05 am

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Update: Hurricane Kyle will not hit Boston directly, but is instead heading up the Altantic seaboard toward the Canadian Maritimes.

The 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Kyle was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane with a possible landfall on Maine's northernmost coast.

The storm picked up speed last night and was expected to pass to the east of Nantucket about 3 a.m.

"It's whizzing by," said Glenn Field, a meterologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton. "By early afternoon, it will be well into the Gulf of Maine."

Maine is bracing for the storm.

Authorities expect the state to see the worst late Sunday or early Monday, with wind gusts as high as 60 mph and waves of 15 to 20 feet, said Robert McAleer, Maine Emergency Management Agency director.

Authorities have advised Mainers living on coastal islands to evacuate if they depend on electricity for medical reasons, because ferry service will probably shut down Sunday, McAleer said. Significant power failures on the north coastal region of the state were also expected, he said.

"There's going to be some beach erosion. Our southern coastline is susceptible to beach erosion; the northern coastline is more rocky," he said.

PREVIOUSLY

As previously reported, Tropical Storm Kyle was making its way towards Bermuda - now it has become a Hurricane just off the northeast US coast.

Kyle, which formed as a tropical storm on Thursday, had sustained winds near 75 mph (120 kph) as it moved on a path that would take its center near eastern New England or Canada's Maritime provinces late on Sunday. Kyle was a minimal Category 1 hurricane on the five-step hurricane intensity scale.

Keep an eye on our Hurricane Kyle scan in our channel here.

Environment Canada has also issued a warning to Canadians.

Southern New Brunswick and southwestern Nova Scotia are expected to get very windy and wet this weekend as Kyle, the 11th named storm of the current hurricane season, bears down on the Maritimes.

Kyle was about 460 kilometres west of Bermuda on Saturday afternoon and ramping up to hurricane strength as it tracked northeasterly toward the Bay of Fundy.

However, it was expected to weaken to tropical storm force again as it crosses over colder northern waters.

“We expect it to make landfall overnight Sunday night through Monday morning in the Saint John, N.B., area,” said Guy Roussel, a forecaster with the Canadian Hurricane Centre.