Hurricane tracking to hit N.B. as post-tropical storm

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Hurricane Lee is tracking to hit New Brunswick early on Sunday as a weak hurricane or post-tropical storm with sustained winds of 95 kilometres per hour, according to the latest update from the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC).

In an update issued at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, the centre published a map showing Lee’s centre barrelling into the Saint John area, and travelling north toward Fredericton and Miramichi.

There’s still plenty of uncertainty about Lee’s final track.

“We are starting to get a better idea of how the weather will evolve this week over Atlantic Canada and the role Hurricane Lee may play,” the CHC’s update reads.

“Once the hurricane makes a northward turn by late Wednesday it will further enhance the tropical air mass over Atlantic Canada. It will also have the effect of slowing the progress of a front which could increase the risk of heavy rainfall over the Maritime provinces during the latter part of the week.

“We expect Lee’s circulation to broaden significantly as it moves north later this week and there are no indicators at this time that the storm will be re-invigorated through merging with non-tropical weather systems.

“Also it is possible the forward motion of the storm could slow which would permit further weakening over cooler waters before affecting land.

“Given these factors, the storm would approach the region as a weak hurricane or strong tropical storm. The range of track possibilities is very broad this far ahead in time, ranging from somewhere in Maine to the southeast of Nova Scotia. With the expanding size of the hurricane and a long trajectory northward, building surf conditions and rip currents are expected along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia this week and particularly on Friday.”