Developing Storm May Be Worst Canada Has Seen in 10 Years

The storm that weather forecasters have been highlighting for days is now in the early stages of its transformation from a seemingly ordinary low pressure center, stirring up light rain and snow, to a fierce beast of a storm capable of sinking ships, stirring up hurricane force winds, and flooding coastal locations with a storm surge.

Fortunately for the U.S., unless the storm makes an unexpected turn, it appears that it will hit America's northern neighbor with far more fury than any part of the East Coast. This should come as a relief to residents of the Jersey Shore, who took the brunt of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as well as winter-weary residents of Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

The storm is in the process of consolidating its energy from several different areas of low pressure and atmospheric spin into one dominant, rapidly intensifying low pressure center. It will draw strength from the unusually sharp temperature differences between air masses along the East Coast as well as steep sea surface temperature gradients off the East Coast. These temperature differences will allow the storm to intensify at a nearly unheard of rate as it clips the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states with wind-whipped light to moderate snow on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Fortunately, it is unlikely to produce heavy snowfall in the big cities of New York and Boston. Instead, most forecasts confine the biggest impacts — including hurricane force wind gusts and blizzard conditions — to Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and extreme northeastern Maine. Instead of being directed at the U.S., the storm's full fury will be reserved for the Canadian Maritimes, including Halifax, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

In a sign of the stakes for eastern Canada, The Weather Channel even sent Mike Seidel, one of its most prominent storm-chasing meteorologists, to Halifax to cover the storm. While the station has sent forecasters abroad to cover hurricanes, this is a rare instance in which they have deployed an expert abroad for a snowstorm. More

 

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