Storm chasers headed for Cape Breton looking for eye of the storm

SYDNEY, N.S. — Storm chasers are coming to town. That’s a pretty good indication of the impact Fiona could have on Cape Breton.  

Weather system models on Thursday have the storm system touching down somewhere in Cape Breton as a hurricane or a tropical storm. And a number of weather professionals and adrenaline junkies are making their way to Nova Scotia to greet it. 

“The worst part, the strongest part, the place where nobody wants to be, that’s where,” said The Weather Network’s Mark Robinson when asked where he will be filming. 

Robinson has been documenting and investigating severe weather throughout North America for almost 10 years, including some big storms in Nova Scotia. 

Fiona is going to be a big one, too. 

“Nor’easters are often this size, but it is also the angle this one is striking at,” he said. “Quite often they will brush by and it will just be the one side, the western side, usually is just providing rain and not just wind. Because this one is coming straight at the province, the one side, the right side of the storm is going to be delivering a heck of a punch and it looks like that is going to be right over Cape Breton.” 

While big storms have hit here before, there are unique characteristics to Fiona. 

“I haven’t seen any storm with a central pressure as low as this one in a long, long time,” said Robinson. “Now, it is really going to depend on how much of its tropical characteristics it will retain when it comes in. If it retains a lot of those tropical characteristics, you can have spectacular strong winds and full-on hurricane force, which I think we are going to be well above anyway.” 

The Weather Network’s Mark Robinson will be in Cape Breton this week to document weather associated with the Fiona system. CONTRIBUTED TWITTER – CONTRIBUTED

The severe weather expert based in Toronto is not the only storm chaser coming to Cape Breton to meet Fiona. 

“There’s a whole ton of American chasers that are headed up to experience their first Nova Scotia hurricane,” he said. “There’s a bunch of chasers coming up. I think it is really amazing because a lot of people don’t realize that Canada gets hit by hurricanes and that Nova Scotia and the Maritimes are under these storms on a regular basis.” 

The guy known as the ‘Hurricane Man’ is also coming to town. 

Josh Morgerman is a renowned storm chaser, TV host and businessman who has already chased down Fiona in the Dominican Republic.  

Morgerman has indicated through his social media channels that his mission will be to penetrate the eye of the same hurricane at two points ‘2,000 miles apart.’ 

“I’m heading to Nova Scotia, Canada, this morning for my 2nd encounter with Hurricane FIONA,” the star of the television show ‘Hurricane Man’ on BBC Earth and other TV providers wrote on his Facebook account Thursday.  

He had already reached the core of Fiona, according to the post, early Monday morning in a tiny town in the Dominican Republic. 

“It had a pretty good kick for a li’l Cat 1.” 

Josh Morgerman is star of the television show ‘Hurricane Man’ on BBC Earth and other TV providers. CONTRIBUTED FACEBOOK – Contributed

Morgerman added that the Canadian Fiona storm will have different vibes than the ‘hawt’ tropical Fiona. 

“Even if I ain’t into it, I can at least say I tried it.” 

Morgerman’s exact Nova Scotia destination was not immediately known.  

Interview requests were sent to him, but his Twitter account indicated he was in Mississippi Thursday morning and about to leave for Canada and ‘may return to hurricane drama.’ 

David Piano, an Ontario-based photographer and storm chaser was also en route on Thursday. 

“Currently it seems likely Fiona will landfall on Cape Breton as a CAT 2 hurricane with an enormous wind field and wind gusts above 170km/h,” he wrote on his Facebook page. 

“Models project 40-45 (foot) waves near Cape Breton and in the Cabot Strait. Catastrophic storm surge is likely due to the combined factor of high tide near the landfall timing.” 

Piano planned to set up a live stream from ‘ground zero’ if his cell service was good enough. He will also be posting updates on his Twitter page. 

“I haven’t seen any storm with a central pressure as low as this one in a long, long time.” — Mark Robinson, The Weather Network

While Robinson is an admirer of big storms, he’s also an admirer of resilience and has noted that Nova Scotians have found an ability to bounce back from big storms and quickly. 

“I get to sort of go to the storm and leave and it is not too hard on me,” he said. “For the locals, for people that are living there, homes can be disrupted, businesses, travel, everything gets disrupted.” 

He’s been through some ‘spectacular storms in Nova Scotia’ on the east coast and was amazed at how much Maritimers ‘just sort of shrug’ and carry on. 

“I remember one storm I went through back in Halifax. It was a couple of hours after the storm had passed and a bunch of trees were down. I went back out and all the trees were gone. How did you guys clean that up so fast?” 

Robinson’s storm updates will be available on social media and The Weather Network.