PERSPECTIVE: Huge chunk of the GTA would fit INSIDE Hurricane Dorian's eye
Hurricane Dorian continues to capture headlines around the world as the record-setting storm lashes parts of the U.S and threatens eastern Canada , after devastating the Bahamas as a monster Category 5 storm earlier this week.
Residents in the northern Bahamas are now surveying the wreckage of their homes as officials struggle to assess the number killed by Hurricane Dorian. Aerial views of the hardest-hit Abaco Islands show widespread devastation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reporting as many as 13,000 homes severely damaged or destroyed.
Now, as Dorian continues to barrel northeastwards, more than 2.2 million people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina had been ordered to evacuate.
We're also closely watching for potentially "severe impact" here at home as tropical cyclone statements cover much of Atlantic Canada. Torrential rains and damaging winds are the primary threats as Dorian makes its way into Canadian waters, with potential for it to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane.
DORIAN'S EYE WOULD SPAN A LARGE PART OF THE GTA
Although the risk for impact stretches into eastern Quebec, Ontario will be spared from any and all of Dorian's wrath.
Still, consider this.
To put the size of this storm into perspective for Ontario, if Hurricane Dorian were to track over the province, the eye of the storm would cover a large chunk of the Greater Toronto Area. Major cities like Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto, Vaughan and Markham could all fit right inside of that eye.
The eye of a tropical cyclone -- usually situated at the geometric centre of the storm -- can be seen as both the most horrific and serene spot of a major hurricane. It's the region of mostly calm weather at the centre of a tropical cyclone, but it's also surrounded by the eyewall where the most severe weather and strongest winds occur. A typical tropical cyclone will have an eye of approximately 30–65 km across.
"It’s a scientifically stunning and catastrophically ferocious site that few people will ever see," as described by The Washington Post's Captial Weather Gang.
