A long time ago in 1938, a very strong hurricane was in a very similar positionto where Earl is now. That hurricane roared due north, slamming across LongIsland, and then into New England. The hurricane of '38 moved so fast that itsworst effects were felt for just a few hours. However, when skies cleared ashort time later, the entire region looked like it had been through someterrible bomb blast. Homes and buildings were destroyed, millions of trees wereblown down, and virtually no one had any power.Hurricane Earl will not be anything like the great 1938 storm, but it will packa serious wallop on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and across southeasternNew England. Nova Scotia and southeastern New Brunswick are going to get apretty bad blow out of this thing as well, though up there winter storms areoften more extreme than any hurricane.
Hurricane Earl will pass within 70 miles of the Outer Banks of North Carolinaearly tonight, where top winds will exceed 75 miles per hour. The hurricanewill be far enough off the mid-Atlantic coast Friday so as not to cause anygreat harm, but there will be tropical storm-force winds and some coastalflooding. The next hard slam will come Friday night on Cape Cod and the nearbyislands, where winds could top 90 miles per hour. This is where the worstdamage from Earl may be. Power will be out, trees will be down, and somestructures will be heavily damaged.
Atlantic Canada will be the next place in harm's way. Earl will quickly weakenonce it gets east of New England due to much cooler water. However,hurricane-force winds could still hit southwestern Nova Scotia, and stronggales will eventually be felt over to Labrador.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
