Quick on the heels of a fantastic first weekend of October came a strong cold front on Monday. The front brought rain and showers but will have lingering impacts into Tuesday as the wind becomes westerly behind it and increases in strength. There will be brisk and windy weather for Tuesday. By midnight Monday into Tuesday, the front will have cleared east of the Maritimes. The wind direction will be westerly and as the centre of the storm system intensifies to our north so too will the wind strength. Expect the wind to quickly pick up Tuesday morning into afternoon to reach widespread gusts of 50 to 70 km/h. A few areas will peak with gusts of 70 to 90 km/h. One of those locations is in the northeast of New Brunswick. A Yellow Warning – Wind was issued for the eastern half of Restigouche County, Bathurst and Chaleur region and Acadian Peninsula. The warning calls for southwest gusts reaching 90 km/h on Tuesday. I’d also caution that some peak gusts could reach 70-to-80 km/h in Prince Edward Island (especially the northern shoreline) and North Shore-mainland Nova Scotia as well as Inverness County-Cape Breton. Travel advisories and cancellations are already in effect for ferry services in the Maritimes including Marine Atlantic and Northumberland Ferries Limited. It would be a good idea to secure any objects in your yard that could be easily windblown or damaged. Lots of great fall decorations are starting to make an appearance and it would be a shame if they ended up broken or lost. The high wind will ease for the Maritimes Tuesday evening and night. Mid-week recovery They call them cold fronts for a reason. The west wind will usher in chilly air out of Quebec. Chilly enough that the Gaspe Peninsula could receive some flurries Tuesday, a low chance for the mountainous areas of northern New Brunswick as well. The entirety of the Maritimes can expect chilly-to-brisk conditions on Tuesday. Morning temperatures in the single-digits will in most cases only reach the low-teens in the afternoon. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning will be chilly as well with low temperatures 3 to 8 C with the northwestern corner of New Brunswick possibly touching on zero. The next change to wind and temperature begins Wednesday afternoon. A high-pressure system over the U.S. eastern seaboard and a low over Hudson Bay will return a southwest wind to the Maritimes. That wind will strengthen to become blustery for Thursday. The southwesterlies will bring milder air up the eastern seaboard into the Maritimes. High temperatures on Thursday look to climb back into the range of the mid-to-high teens. Like what we had this past weekend. Cool turkey The next cold front is expected Friday into Saturday for the Maritimes. The front will bring a chance of showers and once again the return of cooler westerly winds. High temperatures for Saturday and Sunday, Thanksgiving Weekend, are expected to return to the low-to-mid teens. A low chance of showers on Saturday with Sunday a mix of sun and cloud. The holiday Monday forecast is more up in the air. Long range forecast models are hinting that a weather front from the west may link up with a low-pressure system moving up eastern seaboard in the vicinity of the Maritimes. That’s usually the recipe for a pretty good October rain event for us. There is a lot of uncertainty with that outlook. It wouldn’t be unusual to see significant change in timing for both systems that far out in the forecast. If for example the front arrives quicker and the meet-up of the two system doesn’t happen until east of the Maritimes, we could end up with just lighter rain or showers.
