I've posted some aftermath photos from this morning's outing. More will be posted throughout the day. If you have any photos of what Noel did in your area please feel free to post links to them in the comments.

PEI Noel aftermath photos

Some other great photos can be found here.

Last night was fairly tame. Aside from some heavy rain and mid-speed winds it went off without a hitch. This morning around 7am we started a tour of the damage. There really wasn't much to speak of. A few garbage bins blown around, etc. At 8am we made our way out to Rice Point, PEI on the southern shore. This just happened to be when the hardest winds started to hit PEI. I took this video while barely able to stand up.

Since 8am in Charlottetown the wind has really picked up. There are trees down (photos in a few minutes) and police are kindly asking people to stay off the roads. The wind will continue to gust upwards of 100-120km/h then will die down. We'll see what things look like after the blow is over.

Power Outages:

This list is just what I've heard on on the radio or experienced first hand:

• At 8am all power in the Cornwall area seemed to be off. All traffic lights from Cornwall to the Maypoint plaza intersection were out.
• East of Charlottetown (Scotfort, etc) has been without power for a while

Charlottetown's and Sherwood's power has been rock solid. No issues to speak of yet. Leave a comment if you know of power outages on PEI or are miraculously on the Internet without power.

It started raining a few hours ago here in Charlottetown. The winds picked up this evening and as of now (10:55) they are gusting to around 65 km/h. The storm is still well off of Nova Scotia's South West coast. The centre of the storm should pass west of PEI around 4-5AM.

If you haven't been madly refreshing the Canadian Hurricane Centre's Hurricane Track Information page like I have then you probably haven't heard about the recent track change. This afternoon it looked like Noel would be hitting the continent just around Grand Manan. A little west of where they had thought. Noel has made an unanticipated turn and is heading straight up the Bay of Fundy and should cross the Maritimes just slightly west of Moncton.

Weather Resource Tip

There is a sweet little page hidden in the depths of Environment Canada's weather site. It's titled the "Weather" page. Basically it is handy graphical charts of the past 24 hours of weather data from your locale. The current Charlottetown wind chart, which is one of many charts, looks like this:

If you're ever curious about the trends happening in your area this page can't be missed. To get to the page for a different locale simply go to a 5-day weather page for any location and click on the "24 Hour Trends Graph" button.

"The strongest winds are expected to be in the Wreckhouse Newfoundland Area and in Les Suetes in the Cape Breton Highlands... 100 km/h gusting to 180/160 respectively."

Source: Canadian Hurricane Statement

And it starts...

Post-tropical storm Noel is bearing down on the Maritimes today. While it makes its final moves and dekes the good folks at the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax are doing their best to decipher the data.

Even though the storm has changed into a post-tropical storm the forecasters are still warning us of some strong hurricane-force winds and their affects:

Our primary focus is on predicting the Wind field..Particularly a strong low-level wind jet expected in the southwesterlies as the storm centre moves through land areas. Our current assessment of the isallobarically-enhanced wind jet Is that it will move directly over Nova Scotia and pei during the early morning hours Sunday. This is where sustained winds near 80 km/h gusting to 140 km/h are possible
...
WHERE WIND GUSTS TO AND ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE (120 KM/H) ARE FORECAST ..EXPECT TREE LIMBS AND BRANCHES TO BREAK WHICH WILL LIKELY LEAD TO DOWNED POWER LINES AND POWER INTERUPTIONS. SOME TREES WILL LIKELY BE UPROOTED. THESE WINDS WILL CAUSE DAMAGE TO ROOFING AND CLADDING MATERIAL ON SOME HOMES. SOME SIGNAGE COULD ALSO SUFFER DAMAGE WITH WINDS GUSTING THIS HIGH.

The forecast track is now over eastern New Brunswick. The track at this point is not that important. The storm is of a size that hurricane force winds are possible many, many miles from the center:

THE PUBLIC IS ADVISED NOT TO FOCUS ON THE ACTUAL TRACK OF THE STORM CENTRE SINCE THE HIGH WINDS AND HEAVY RAINS WILL EXTEND VERY FAR FROM THE TRACK LINE ITSELF.

Bring in the patio furniture today.

Soure: Canadian Hurricane Information Statement

Hurricane Noel was officially classified as a post tropical cyclone this afternoon. Don't despair though, we're still in for 120km/h wind gusts and 50mm of rain.

Noel also decided to head a little further west.

"Although we are calling it a post-tropical storm we expect it to be accompanied by hurricane Force winds as it passes."

and

"The strongest winds are expected over portions of Nova Scotia ...Hurricane force gusts to 140 km/h at the coast and and localized gusts up to 120 km/h inland. Wind gusts to 120 km/h for pei are Also possible. These winds will likely break tree branches leading To the potential for downlined power lines. Accordingly localized power outages are possible. For Newfoundland Wreckhouse winds of 140 km/h will likely be forecast by the Newfoundland and Labrador weather office."

source: Weather Canada Hurricane Information Statements

It's still headed straight for us and it's still a hurricane. They expect Noel to change into a post tropical cyclone this afternoon or evening.