Archived: Hurricane Kyle Brief Storm Summary (2008)

Storm

On September 25, Tropical Storm Kyle formed about 900 km east of Nassau, Bahamas. Kyle tracked almost due north for two days before reaching hurricane strength when it was 550 km east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Over the following 30 hours, Kyle covered more than 1000 km as it moved north-northeast. It eventually made landfall in Nova Scotia as a marginal Category 1 hurricane (120 km/h) with a central pressure of 986 hPa. Landfall was just south of the boundary between Yarmouth and Digby counties in western Nova Scotia, just north of Yarmouth, at 9:30 p.m. ADT, Sunday, September 28. Kyle marks the first hurricane to make fandfall in Canada since Juan made landfall in Nova Scotia exactly 5 years earlier (12:10 a.m. ADT, September 29, 2003).

Conditions

Kyle brought sustained hurricane-force winds to southwestern Maritime waters and portions of the Atlantic coast of southwestern Nova Scotia. Rainfalls near and west of the storm track--over New Brunswick, extreme western Nova Scotia, and southeastern Quebec--were in the range of 50–100 mm. Some of this rain came in a separate burst of tropical air which preceded Kyle. An estimated storm surge of 80 cm on top of a new moon spring tide arrived within a couple of hours of the daily high tide. Maps of rainfall and peak gusts are shown along with select reports of peak wind and rain.

Impacts

Power outages were reported in all three Maritime provinces, with more than 40,000 Nova Scotia customers losing power for much of the night. Coastal inundation from the combined surge, waves and tide occurred in Nova Scotia’s Shelburne and Yarmouth counties and, combined with wind gusts over 100 km/h, resulted in some damage to boats, docks, wharves, beach lines, and the failure of one building under construction. The hardest hit area was Shelburne County in Nova Scotia.

Warnings

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued its first bulletin more than three days before Kyle made landfall. It issued a hurricane watch for Nova Scotia’s tri-county area of Shelburne, Yarmouth and Digby 30 hours before landfall and issued an upgrade to a hurricane warning 6 hours prior to landfall. Tropical storm watches and warnings were also issued for the southern portions of New Brunswick and the southwestern half of Nova Scotia. In addition, Environment Canada’s Storm Prediction Centres in the Atlantic and Quebec regions issued various inland wind, rain and surge warnings as well as marine wind warnings.

Coordination and communication effort

Environment Canada provided timely weather warnings to Canadians and also support to emergency planners and emergency services both before and during the event. More than 160 media interviews were conducted by weather service staff in addition to two proactive technical media briefings held by the Canadian Hurricane Centre. From September 25 to 29 the Canadian Hurricane Centre was involved in continual consultations with the U.S. National Hurricane Center, the Atlantic and Quebec Storm Prediction Centres, the U.S. National Weather Service (in New England), the Eastern Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre, the Canadian Meteorological Centre, Aviation and Defence Services Halifax, and Environment Canada client services and warning preparedness meteorologists throughout eastern Canada. Direct consultation and coordination also included Public Safety Canada and emergency measures organizations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.