New England Hurricanes: Hurricane Kyle Heads to Maine

New England Hurricanes can and do happen. While most of us think of hurricanes as storms that hit the more Southern United States, there have been several examples of hurricanes to hit the New England area. Today, flooding and damaging winds are threatening the state of Maine as Category 1 Hurricane Kyle speeds up the coast. Portions of Maine and Southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada remain under both a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning as of September 28, 2008.

With an estimated minimum central pressure of 996 mb and maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, Hurricane Kyle has been called ugly by the National Hurricane Center, but remains at hurricane strength. Increasing Southwesterly vertical wind shear is part of the problem, and may weaken Kyle. In addition, the storm should be entering into some much cooler waters before landfall. The center of Kyle should pass to the East of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and be over Canadian waters by Monday. A visible imagery loop of Kyle is available. Wind speeds, watch and warning areas, temperatures, dew points, and more can be overlain on the image loop.