This Nor’easter versus White Juan
Weather Broadcaster
Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 6:55 AM -
Every single computer model points to an epic early Spring storm for Atlantic Canada within the next 48 hours. There is no disagreement about the storm's potential natural power and its impact on our daily lives.
The only change in the forecast will be minor adjustments to the storms track, timing, precipitation and wind velocity values.
TUNE IN FOR LIVE COVERAGE: Chris St. Clair will on location in PEI, Chief Meteorologist Chris Scott and Meteorologist Mark Robinson will be monitoring the storm from Cape Breton and Nathan Coleman will be on location in Halifax.
Could it be as bad as White Juan?
White Juan was a Nor’easter. It developed on February 17 2004, just off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Seasonally, that’s just a month earlier than today's storm.
White Juan II? CIPS analog guidance looks eerily similar. Wed. storm looks deeper/closer to coast #atlstorm #nsstorm pic.twitter.com/qO6mKi6Z5W
— Chris Scott (@ChrisScottWx) March 24, 2014
Central barometric pressure on White Juan fell 57 millibars in 42 hours, that's explosive pressure change - it’s also a key indicator that forecasters use to determine the force or intensity of a storm.
Our storm is expected to drop 50 millibars over a similar period - Potentially as dynamic as White Juan!
In 2004 Halifax received over 88 cm of snow in a 24 hour period. Recording exact snow accumulation was difficult due to the powerful winds which remained steady at 80-100 km/h with gusts as high as 124 km/h - for a 12 hour period. Radar estimated that during those hours on February 19th, snow fell at a rate of at least 5 cm per hour.
That one event made Halifax the largest city in the world to get that much snow in one day!
ATLANTIC CANADA NOR'EASTER: Eight weather terms you'll be hearing this week
White Juan also halted a everything in the east. Curfews were imposed in Halifax - where six million tonnes of snow needed to be plowed from city streets (it took 3 days to simply make them passable).
An unprecedented province wide State Of Emergency was declared for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. A 150 km wide swath of over 60 cm of snow with drifts measuring over 2 metres ran from the south shore of Nova Scotia through southern New Brunswick and PEI.
Transport was halted for days - some schools & businesses shuttered for a week!
White Juan could be thought of as a winter hurricane - though to be a hurricane a storm must form in tropical waters - it’s winds, storm surge, precipitation volumes and impact on people was indeed epic.
Now, The Weather Network is in place throughout Atlantic Canada to show you live in realtime on TV & Digital platforms what might be the rival to White Juan.
LIVE STREAMING: Check back for LIVE stream coverage of this storm on theweathernetwork.com Wednesday
#AtlStorm team throughout AtlanticCanada @NateTWN @StormHunterTWN @ChrisScottwx @cstclair1 see it on The Weather Network + @weathernetwork
— Chris St.Clair (@cstclair1) March 24, 2014
