HOUSTON -

Tropical Storm Leslie made landfall today over Newfoundland, Canada. Newfoundland is in what is called the Canadian Maritimes and is the easternmost Canadian Province. Leslie likely brought down a lot of trees and cut off power to much of the region as they experience many hours of wind gusts to 60 mph. They also may have some flooding as heavy rainfall occurred Monday well in advance of the arrival of Leslie’s center. Leslie is now part of what meteorologists call an extratropical low and will continue to bring very high winds and seas at it passes south of Greenland and maybe over Iceland the next few days.

The graphic comes to us from the Canadian Hurricane Centre, a part of Environment Canada, the weather service for the country. Canada experiences on average one or two tropical cyclones a year, often the remnants of once powerful hurricanes that moved northward through the open Atlantic. Many storms pass over the ocean to the south of the maritime and have significant impacts on shipping and fishing, thus keeping the Canadian Hurricane Forecasters busy.

A couple of notable storms from history in Canada: In 1775 a hurricane passed off the coast of Newfoundland resulting in more than 4000 mariners losing there lives. Most were British and this event is thought to have helped the American Revolution cause by reducing the British Navy fleet. In 1900 the remnant from the Galveston Hurricane crossed Canada killing up to 230 people. Recently, Hurricanes Juan in 2003 and Igor in 2010 hit Nova Scotia and Newfoundland respectively. Each was the worst hurricane on record making landfall in these provinces.

To see how Canada provides warnings and forecasts, visit their website at http://www.ec.gc.ca.

Animated Hurricane Map

Hurricane Information:

Airline and Airport Links:

Bill Read's Blog: Hurricanes and Canada

Animated Hurricane Map