Damage from Hurricane Earl
Many people were without power for a day or two due to trees and branches falling on power lines.
The eye of Hurricane Earl? Video
Around noon, it brightened up, the wind died down and then shifted, and blue sky started to move in. We weren’t expecting a well-defined eye, but when we saw blue sky, we got excited. Was it really the eye? Perhaps it was just the sky just clearing after the brunt of the rain had passed, [...]
Storm surge in Mahone Bay
At 11 a.m., as the hurricane approaches, the powerful southeasterly wind is pushing water into the bay, causing a storm surge. We’re lucky that the tide is low. Otherwise, some coastal areas would be flooded and there would be damage to infrastructure. At Western Shore, surf’s up! This is usually a quiet and peaceful place, [...]
Video at Oak Island as Hurricane Earl approaches
Taken around 11 a.m. Wind is from the southeast. The centre of the hurricane is still to the south of Cape Sable Island and tracking northeastwards towards us at 30 mph (50 km/hr). Winds at nearby Lunenburg are reported to be SE 81 gusting to 99 km/h.
Hurricane Earl approaching Mahone Bay
We woke early to the sound of the wind, and the news that Hurricane Earl is tracking more easterly than predicted last night, and should pass us directly overhead. Right now it is just south of Yarmouth and has not made landfall yet. Environment Canada calls it a marginal category 1 hurricane, though some other [...]
Ready and waiting for Earl
It’s a bit surreal preparing for a hurricane. If it weren’t for the weather forecasters and mass media, we’d have no idea that anything was coming. We take it on faith that they’re right, and act. We aren’t going camping or sailing this holiday weekend. Instead we’ve battened down the hatches and stocked up on [...]
Watching and waiting for Hurricane Earl
It is unusually hot here in this part of Nova Scotia (near Mahone Bay), for early September. Knowing that we’re going to be experiencing the eye of a hurricane before things cool down is not a great comfort, at least not when you own a boat. Some people are taking their boats out of the [...]
Flowers in the fog
Fog is really neat. I’ve been mesmerized by it out on the ocean on a sailboat, where it becomes your whole world – but that’s another blog post. The other morning after the fog moved in, I was startled by the colours of the flowers. It was partly the contrast between the saturated colour close [...]
It’s an early spring
Apple blossoms were blooming in Lunenburg last Thursday, which means they’re past their prime in the Annapolis Valley already. The Apple Blossom Festival will apparently be blossom-less. Usually the organizers hit the blossoms right on with their timing, but this year it is generally agreed that spring is 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule. [...]
The timing of spring
After almost 3 weeks in Brussels and London (delayed by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano), I confess to having mixed feelings about coming home. That’s because it’s really spring in Brussels. When we got there on April 4, the daffodils were past their peak. Forsythia – great bunches of it growing wild – [...]
