Laura’s impact on Halifax’s weekend weather still uncertain

UPDATE: Laura only expected to have minor influence on Nova Scotia

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The Canadian Hurricane Centre continues to monitor a tropical system that could affect our weekend weather.

Laura made landfall early Thursday morning in Louisiana near the Texas border as a powerful Category 4 hurricane. It was downgraded to a tropical storm this afternoon.

“What we expect over the next 36 to 48 hours is it will continue to weaken, but that centre of circulation should remain fairly intact, or at least discernable within the larger-scale weather pattern,” explained meteorologist Bob Robichaud.

As of noon Thursday, the track for Laura still has it making a hard right-hand turn, then passing back over ocean waters just south of Nova Scotia's coast.

“Once it moves over the open water of the Atlantic where it will head in a northeasterly direction, we expect it to intensify to a certain degree, we're not exactly sure how much, but as a post-tropical storm that could swing by Sunday,” Robichaud said.

He said the situation continues to be fairly complex as Laura's moisture could be picked up by a weather system from the Great Lakes, which is expected to move into Nova Scotia late Saturday.

“We need to watch this thing,” said Robichaud. 

“Right now it doesn't look like it's going to result in any huge impacts, other than potentially enhancing the rainfall, but if that track continues to move further north where it does cross the coast, then we could be looking at some potentially strong winds as well.”