Eastern Canada to suffer residual effects of worsening hurricane season

The Canadian Hurricane Centre recently told Canadian Press that conditions are right for a turbulent close to the hurricane season.In an online posting, CTV cited a CP interview with Peter Bowyer of the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, N.S. CP cites Bower as saying meteorologists are currently watching unsettled weather off Florida that could spell trouble for Eastern Canada if it develops over the coming week.According to the CP report: Bowyer says it’s always a bit of a guessing game, but the growing frequency and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes means it is increasingly likely Eastern Canada will be affected in some way during the hurricane season, which ends in November.CP interviewed Boyer at roughly the same time a team at the Colorado State University predicted above-average hurricane activity in the Atlantic for the remaining three months of the season.The individual month of September and the two-month period of October-November are expected to experience five named storms each, the university researchers predicted. In September, the forecast calls for four of the five storms to become hurricanes and two to become major hurricanes. In October-November, the team forecasts two of the five named storms to become hurricanes and one to become a major hurricane.”We expect the remainder of the season to be active,” said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the hurricane forecast. “The conditions in the Pacific are transitioning to a weak La Nina. We have seen low pressure readings in the tropical Atlantic during August. The combination of these two factors usually implies an active season.”June-July 2007 had average activity with two named storms forming during the two-month period (Barry and Chantal). Chantal caused damage in eastern Canada in mid-July, Environment Canada noted in an online posting, although it maintained a respectable distance from land and its gale and storm force winds remained largely confined to the Grand Banks. Chantal eventually moved east of Newfoundland and moved over the far north Atlantic Ocean.