Canadian Hurricane Centre Meteorological Service of Canada 45 Alderney Drive Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 2N6 canada website

Canadian Hurricane Centre Meteorological Service of Canada 45 Alderney Drive Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 2N6 CANADA Website: http://www.hurricanes.ca 2011 TROPICAL CYCLONE SEASON SUMMARY

Eight tropical cyclones entered the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC) Response Zone (RZ) in 2011 but four of those were on the very edge of the zone. The CHC issued bulletins on eight storms in total. The four main events were Hurricane Irene entering Quebec from northern New Hampshire on August 29^th as a post-tropical storm, Hurricane Katia tracking well offshore south of Newfoundland on September 10^th, Hurricane Maria which made landfall as a strong tropical storm in Newfoundland on September 16^th, and Hurricane Ophelia entering the RZ as a category-3 storm and land falling in Newfoundland as a strong post-tropical storm on October 3^rd.

Below is a summary of the 4 main tropical events affecting Canadian territory in 2011 comprising 85% of CHC’s forecast statements for the season. The remaining 15% were for weaker storms, including nine statements issued for Tropical Storm Gert in mid September. Gert dissipated without affecting the Canadian marine forecast district.

Hurricane Irene made two U.S. landfalls – the first in North Carolina and the second over western Long Island near New York City. Irene was a very large and damaging storm affecting a large population of the eastern U.S. The storm weakened to tropical storm strength quickly after landfall and underwent transition to post-tropical over northern New Hampshire on August 29^th. The centre of the low then tracked along the Quebec/Maine border, north of the Gaspe region of Quebec and into Labrador. As Irene underwent transition to extratropical, a sharp warm front formed over the St Lawrence River valley, enhancing wind and precipitation in that region.

The heaviest rainfall from Irene in Canada was experienced in southern Quebec (see table below) where 150 mm fell in the hilly Charlevoix region on the north side of the St. Lawrence River. Montreal received near 65 mm of rain, most of which fell over a 5-hour period on August 28^th. Up to 90 mm of rain fell east of the storm track over northern New Brunswick. Generally less than 25 mm fell over Nova Scotia. The strongest winds blew from the northeast along the St. Lawrence River southwestward to Montreal where gusts were near 80 km/h. These winds were associated with the warm front north of Irene and exceeded 100 km/h at a few exposed island locations (see table below). East of the storm track winds gusted to near 90 km/h over the Maritime Provinces. These winds generated choppy conditions in local harbours around the region.

Flooding occurred over parts of southern Quebec resulting in some road washouts and causing one direct fatality when a vehicle was swept into a river northeast of Montreal after a large culvert collapsed beneath the road. Winds brought down several trees in Quebec and New Brunswick leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity. Rough seas and some large waves caused minor problems along the coast. In southern New Brunswick, waves were spreading rocks and other debris across a road near a popular beach.