What effects will storm have on Canada?

With Hurricane Florence on the verge of making landfall, forecasters say it’s too soon to say if Canada will feel any of the effects of the storm expected to cause widespread damage in the Southern U.S.

“We’re looking at a very intense storm, and it’s getting bigger as it approaches the Carolinas,” said Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

He said the hurricane is expected to hit the coast of Georgia or South Carolina late Friday or early Saturday.

“These things tend to weaken fairly rapidly after they make landfall, so we’re expecting it’s going to weaken into the day on Saturday, and then morph into a tropical storm or a tropical depression.”

Robichaud said weather modelling can predict the storm only into Monday, when the centre of the storm is expected to be in the centre of North Carolina.

It’s possible the storm can take a turn and head back out to sea after Monday, but Robichaud said it’s too soon to determine the storm’s track.

“But what we’re keeping an eye on is whether any remaining moisture from the storm would be pulled up into Canada,” he said.

“We don’t expect the centre of the storm to approach Canada at all. We’ll have a better idea of that once it makes landfall.”

If that happens, people in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes can expect lots of rain, but winds will likely remain calm, he said.