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Everything you need to know about the first hurricane of the Atlantic season is now in front of you. Hurricane Isaiah has reached Category 3, but it is now a post-tropical cyclone. This is a video from Friday. Hurricane hunters measured wind speed and pressure, trying to get enough data before the storm made landfall so that residents in Florida and Alabama could prepare. Here's footage from Jacksonville showing heavy rain, but it certainly wasn't the worst of it. There were reports of hotel roofs being torn off in Florida, of course closer to the center of the storm, where we saw the most devastating effects. Half a million people in Florida and Alabama were left without power. So, this storm made landfall on Friday
night local time in Destin, Florida at 8:30 p.m. Well, I want to invite meteorologist Kevin MacKay to talk about this in more detail. Kevin, it's definitely an interesting start to the Atlantic hurricane season. Yes, I think we were already doubting whether it would even start, but, as they say, better late than never. Isaiah is the first hurricane of the season, and it's the latest first hurricane in the so- called modern era since 1966, when we started using satellites to track storms. And that's another way to look at the season as a whole-to estimate the amount of energy that all of these named storms have accumulated. About a week ago, we were only at 8%. So this one storm added about 10% of the energy that a
hurricane season usually has by the time it ends. Okay, we know this storm is no longer a hurricane as it continues to move across the United States, losing a lot of energy and strength. So, Kevin, where is he headed next? It has already lost most of its strength, but will continue to move north. It's heading through Alabama to Tennessee, Kentucky, and we'll see the edge of the clouds reach southern Ontario tonight, but the big question is how far north this moisture will travel before a cold front from the north pushes it back south. And this is an issue not only for southern Ontario, but also later for Nova Scotia.
This cold front will play a major role. Yes, Kevin, we've seen some models predicting rain in Barrie, and other models showing everything staying south of Highway 401, as far as southern Ontario is concerned. So, can you describe the big picture for us? How much precipitation do you think we should expect by Thanksgiving Sunday? Yeah, I don't think anyone between Toronto and Barrie will see more than 5mm. Niagara and Hamilton, in my opinion, raise the most questions. There we can see both 5 cm and 5 mm. We can see 15 mm. That's a big question, but what's not in doubt, Rachel, is the temperature and how impressive it is. So, when we see this big influx of air from the Gulf of Mexico, it usually raises temperatures across Ontario, and that could be an
advantage for this Thanksgiving weekend, right, Kevin? Yes, and the areas that will benefit will be, say, Thunder Bay, Timmins, and Sue St. Marie. The largest temperature anomaly is right above Lake Verkhny. Take a look at these temperatures on Sunday, but don't envy Timmins if you're in southern Ontario, because it won't last all weekend for them. They'll be 15 degrees cooler by Monday. Okay, that's all you need to know about Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias.
