Cape Breton Weather Mesonet

Sydney broke its all-time November record high temperature today, reaching 22.8C at the airport. Previous November record was 22.2C, set on 5 Nov 1961. Climate records for Sydney began a full 150 years ago in 1870. The fact that we have now set the warmest November day in at least 150+ years is remarkable! Ingonish was the Canadian hot-spot today, reaching a balmy 24.9C. This came close to beating the provincial November record of 25.5C, also set in Ingonish many years ago. T...he heat is not over quite yet. Tomorrow will be another warm one, especially in the early part of the day. A cold front will slide south through the afternoon and bring with it, a return to more seasonable conditions.. much to the dismay of many of us (including myself.. haha). Jonathan

Today was an absolute record-smasher in terms of maximum temperatures! Warmest areas were northeastern mainland and southwestern CB. The hot-spot was in Richmond County (Evanston), reaching 24.7C

Don’t put the shorts, t-shirts and sandals away just yet! An exceptionally warm airmass is heading our way. The airmass.. in this case a heat ridge, has been baking over the North American continent for over a week now with clear skies and temperatures in the low 20’s. Tuesday is likely to be the warmest/sunniest here in Cape Breton with temperatures likely near 20C. Wednesday will also be nice, though the warmth may be confined to south and western areas of the island. Clouds begin pushing in on Thursday and we’re back to reality by the weekend. Enjoy folks Satellite image taken November 3rd, showing a huge swath of North America without any clouds under a warm ridge of high pressure.. not something you typically see in November!

Vibrant autumn colours in downtown Sydney (Wentworth a Park) this afternoon

Hi Everyone.. just a heads up on strong westerly winds possible for Thursday afternoon and evening in Cape Breton. Southeast and central CB are likely to see gusts around 80.. not quite warning criteria but still could cause some disruptions. In the north, from Wreck Cove/Ingonish and up through Aspy Bay to Bay St. Lawrence there could be gusts near 100 km/h in the usual exposed areas. Same goes for the west coast. There may be power outages as most trees still have full foliage, especially on the line that runs north from Wreck Cove hydro through Ingonish and up to Pleasant Bay and BSL. Peak winds for that area look to be near midnight on Thursday eve.

Folks Post Teddy NASA captures by Fred B.... Teddy certainly stirred up some sediment in the Atlantic off the southeast coast of the Island with the storm surge and wave action, as noted in NASA’s Aqua satellite image from yesterday afternoon. Nothing of note along the Bras d’Or Lake shoreline, or at the mouths of any of the major rivers that may have been associated with rainfall.... Fred

From our friend Fred Baechler: Folks Attached is NASA’s Terra satellite shot from this morning, certainly highlighting where the large hardwood forests are through the fall colours.... For those interested in our long dry summer, regards wells/streams/lakes, the Canadian Drought Monitor released its summary of September conditions (note map and text attached). Most of Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton, were still classified as being under abnormally dry conditions. Fred

Numbers are in after Teddy’s trek across Nova Scotia. For Cape Breton, strongest gusts were observed around Grand Etang on Tuesday evening and along the Bras d’Or Lake (Iona) and SE Cape Breton (Gabarus) Wednesday afternoon. Mesonet stations that did not reach 85km/h or higher are not listed in the summary (most of which, did not). For rainfall, a sharp contrast between in totals of eastern vs. western side of the Cape Breton Highlands was fascinating.. as our weather often i...s! Many of us might look back at Hurricane Teddy feeling a bit underwhelmed.. perhaps because we were expecting another Dorian? However, Teddy did deliver some surprises, such as heavy rainfall in northern CB and strong winds in Isle Madame and along the Bras d’Or. There was a lot of hype leading up to Teddy because it was a strong hurricane just a day before reaching NS. Of course, Teddy was expected to weaken before making landfall as a post-tropical storm and that’s exactly what happened. On a more positive note.. the final week of September should be much warmer than normal, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low to mid 20s. Enjoy!

Flooding rains persist from Ingonish to Bay St. Lawrence as several stations close in on 100mm. Smelt Brook has been hardest hit with 105.4mm thus far. 49.0mm of which accumulated in just one hour! (Between 7 and 8pm)

See the BLBRA news letter for an interesting article about lake temperatures and up welling as reported by the Mesonet's Water temperature sensors and interpreted by Jonathan Buffet. The Mesonet's data capture and subsequent interpretation can help us understand the world around us! Good Work Jonathan!... https://mailchi.mp//biosphere-highlights-quarterly-summer-

From Fred B... Folks NASA’s Terra satellite view of Teddy yesterday morning (attachment 1). NASA’s World view of winds around Teddy (attachment 2). Interestingly Teddy seems to be trying to entrain some Saharan dust along with it (attachment 3)... fred

Hi Everyone, I’m going to offer my opinion on the potential impacts that Teddy will have for Cape Breton and surrounding areas. I’m not a meteorologist, but am fairly well informed when it comes to this topic Firstly, I think there’s a bit too much hype with this storm. It won’t be a hurricane by the time it reaches Nova Scotia, after transitioning into something similar to a nor’easter that we would see late fall/winter. Anyone who has flashbacks of Dorian need not be wor...ried - it won’t be anything like that. That said, you should still expect sporadic power outages, potentially widespread in some areas. Trees have full foliage, making them heavier and more prone to breakage. Tuesday afternoon will feature strong easterlies and moderate rainfall. Wind gusts will likely reach 70 to 80km/h and will (of course) be stronger along the immediate coastline where gusts could go over 90km/h. This, coupled with the rain will likely cause patchy power outages across the island, but I don’t expect it to be too bad. Wednesday will be worse. Winds will ease through the night on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. In fact, some of you might wake up on Wednesday to sunshine and temperatures near 20C. That won’t last long however, as winds will increase dramatically once again. From mid-morning Wednesday into the evening we are likely to see the strongest winds, quickly veering from SE to S to SW by late afternoon. Widespread gusts of 80 to 90km/h inland and 100+ along south-facing coastal areas should be expected. That’s when we can expect to see more widespread power outages. Also, Isle Madame and SE Cape Breton could be particularly hard-hit by this part of the storm. Waves will be high along the Atlantic coast, along with above normal water levels (storm surge). Winds will then turn westerly and begin to weaken through Wednesday night. Areas to our west, such as Halifax and PEI are likely to see the heaviest rain, along with strong northerly winds. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the more significant impacts occurred in those areas, largely due to the combination of high rainfall and wind. Luckily, we should escape the worst of the rain. Totals should be 50mm or less. However, some isolated pockets of Cape Breton could end up with 80-90 mm, especially along the eastern side of the highlands near Ingonish. If anything changes (such as expected track or intensity), I will post an update. Everybody stay safe and enjoy the storm! Jonathan

Different Views of Smoke as captured by Fred B. Folks ... California forest fire smoke over us yesterday (17 September), as visualized in various ways. Attachment #1 is from NASA’s World View system, visually showing the smoke plumes moving across the continent and reaching us. Attachment #2 utilized Environment Canada’s Forest Fire particulate modelling looking at maximum ground level particulates (PM 2.5) on the same continental scale. Attachment #3 focuses on NASA’s assessment of global particulates at PM1 level across North America. Attachment #4 is from NASA’s Terra satellite yesterday morning, providing a visual closeup of Nova Scotia. Interesting that the smoke plume is quite narrow as it funnels directly over us at it leaves the continent. A good demonstration that the Northeast US and Atlantic Canada are positioned at the downwind end of most North American continent emissions. The concern for Cape Breton’s water resources relates to the chemicals associated with forest fire particulate matter, which may contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), Dioxin/Furans, Hydrocarbons etc. If those particulates are brought to ground surface by rainfall, then what could be the potential impacts? fred

Holy smoke .... From west coast to east coast.... Images from Fred B... Folks Looks like the smoke plumes from the California fires reached us today. Attachment #1 is from NASA’s World View system, showing the smoke plumes moving across the continent and reaching us. The second attachment focuses on Nova Scotia from NASA’s Aqua satellite this afternoon.... fred

Notes from Fred... Folks In case you were wondering about the extent of the dry conditions we were experiencing with wells going dry and streams at very low levels, note the attachment which describes where we stand at the end of August this year. Looks like August put the Atlantic Region in one of the hardest hit areas of the country. Cape Breton is in a bit better condition as being noted as just Abnormally dry.... fred Fred Baechler https://www.agr.gc.ca//drought-/canadian-drought-monitor/

Note from Freb B Sept 11 Todays satellite imagery from NASA identifying fine smoke related particulate matter certainly reveals the expansion from the last one I sent around 2 days ago; identifying the extent of the fires lighting up and smoking out the entire west coast of the US. Also note the extent of smoke particulates crossing the US. ... fred

Freb B is tracking the fires and the smoke.... Folks It looks like the wild fires on-going in California are quite large and extensive (note item from NASA in the first attachment). From NASA’s Earth global mapping (attachment 2), some of the smoke headed westward out to sea, the rest has made its way across the continent to us, as noted with PM1 size particulates today.... fred

Our Friend Fred Baechler monitors NASA photo's for nice shots of Cape Breton..... Here is another... Folks Interesting shot of us this afternoon from NASA’s Aqua satellite. Nice development of cumulus clouds over the mainland, which stops abruptly at the Canso Strait. Must be the COVID bubble stopping the mainland clouds from coming onto the Island ?? Interesting large circular cloud bank off the eastern tip of PEI. OK so Bill/Jonathan why no cloud build up over the Islan...d on a nice warm sunny day? fred

When you play with the "layers button" at WWW.capebretonweather.ca you can get a variety of presentations of the weather data. This one show the relative amounts of rain for the current rain storm. .

Water temperatures slowly rebounding in Ben Eoin. After days of brisk westerlies, warm surface water has been pushed back into East Bay. However, on the other side of the Bras d’Or at West Bay Marshes, the opposite has occurred, with a sharp drop in lake temperature there

Les Suetes howl for the first time since late spring. A gentle reminder of what lay ahead as we move into fall..

The once warm layer of surface water in East Bay has been pushed out by recent easterlies. What replaces it? Cold water from beneath the lake, known as upwelling. Lake temperature at Ben Eoin plummeted from a toasty 25.0C to just 9.4C in a few days!

It’s not hard to get ducked at the beach with these kind of water temperatures! Weeks of SW wind and mainly sunny skies have pushed a stratified layer of warm lake water into East Bay, with Ben Eoin taking the lead at 24.4C. The ocean isn’t too far behind.. Englishtown now up to 21.1C and Gabarus 19.3C (not shown here).

Warming nicely around the beaches of Port Hood, with Henry Island up to 28C. Must be why locals call Port Hood the Florida of Cape Breton. Water becomes so warm there in summer.. This helps to explain why. A bit cooler on the western side of St. George’s Bay near Lakevale and Antigonish Harbour. Interesting to see these differences in real time.

A lovely Sunday! Many areas near 30C. This is what we wait for all year, as our beautiful island turns into a tropical paradise. More nice weather to come through the week and into the long weekend. Some rain for Monday and then the heat returns Wednesday. Enjoy

From our friend Fred Baechler: Folks Ahhhhh.a nice summer’s day shot from NASA’s Terra satellite this morning. Lots of summer time heating causing those puffy cumulus clouds over the land and an interesting, what appears to be fog, off Cheticamp, which crosses the Cabot Starit over to Newfoundland.... fred