Teddy makes landfall in eastern Nova Scotia

A fishing trawler in Seaforth, Nova Scoita sits tightly secured early Tuesday morning in advance of Hurricane Teddy. Teddy made landfall as a strong post-tropical storm early Wednesday morning near Sheet Harbour. Damage so far has been minor. (CBC)

Hurricane Teddy completed a transformation into a powerful post-tropical cyclone late Tuesday, before moving into Nova Scotia, well northeast of Halifax. The once Category 4 hurricane moved inland between Sheet Harbour and Ecum Secum, Nova Scotia around 10AM Atlantic Time Wednesday morning.

At the time of landfall, Teddy had 105km/h winds, with a central pressure of 964 millibars. Teddy is now racing off to the northeast at 43km/h, expected to move into the Gulf of St. Lawrence later today, and then across far western Newfoundland. The storm continues to produce heavy rain and strong winds, but it has been the fierce surf and pounding waves that have been Teddy's main feature. Wave heights in some offshore locations have been over 10 metre high (30 feet). 

So far minimal damage has been reported across the province, with the strongest winds occurring north and east of Halifax. A peak wind gust to 107km/h was recently reported at Hart Island, and 97km/h at Eskasoni. Winds have been frequently gusting close to 100km/h on Sable Island. Nova Scotia power is reporting a little over 18,000 clients without electricity as of 11am. Approximately 300 crews have been assigned to storm damage, with the assistance of several teams from New Brunswick Power.

Teddy will continue to move northeast today while weakening slightly. The storm is large in size, with tropical storm force winds extending outward up to 335km from the center. Cloud cover from Teddy has spread as far west as southern Quebec Wednesday morning. Gusty northwest winds will develop across most of Quebec on Wednesday as Teddy pulls away and a pressure gradient develops between the storm and high pressure nudging into our region.