"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.

Hurricane Noel survived the night. With the additional 12 hours of forward movement we now know the path is virtually guaranteed to go through the Maritimes.

Noel is forecast to change into a post tropical cyclone later today. While that doesn't sound as scary as a hurricane it still is forecast to be a massive weather system packing winds up to 120km/h and lots of rain. While the transition is expected later today it is not guaranteed to happen in the allotted timeframe.

As you can see from the track Noel is moving along at a very rapid pace. While the track is dead-on for PEI it will be over very quickly as the system races over us.

Noel will not be a Juan. It will still be a great storm but think more of a strong nor'easter. Who knows though? Noel might maintain its hurricane status, funnel right up the Fundy and smash into us as a category 2 hurricane. Stranger things have happened.

"MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 75 MPH...120 KM/HR... WITH HIGHER GUSTS. NOEL IS NOW A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR/SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. HOWEVER...IT IS EXPECTED TO LOSE TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. NOEL SHOULD THEN STRENGTHEN AND INCREASE IN SIZE AS AN EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE. INTERESTS ALONG THE U.S. EAST COAST FROM NORTH CAROLINA NORTHWARD SHOULD CONSULT STATEMENTS ISSUED BY THEIR LOCAL NWS FORECAST OFFICE."

Tropical Storm (and potentially a hurricane) Noel has veered left of its last forcasted track and is now bearing down on Prince Edward Island. This seems to have saved me a drive to Cape Breton.

I've got a digital video camera, a sunroof, and a willing wife. Should be legendary.

The absolute best places for hurricane & weather related information is from the two government agencies that track the weather. In Canada that is Environment Canada in the US it is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both organizations have weather specific sections to their sites.

• Environment Canada's Weather Office
• NOAA's National Weather Service

Hurricane Specific Links:

• Canadian Hurricane Information
• National Hurricane Center

I'm an extreme weather junkie and this is the kind of thing that really gets me going. It's not a hurricane yet but is forecast to be one.

I'm charging the camera & GPS batteries, prepping the car, and patching up the Goretex.... Check back here for updates.

Little did I know that my Garmin (Vista HCx) can save GPS tracks with the timestamp intact! This is great for geotagging photos, loading timed tracks into Google Earth, etc.. Up until now the only way I knew to do this was to not save my tracks on the GPS and get the 'active log' from the GPS. A clumsy process. Here's a better way:

As far as I can tell this only works for Garmin models with an expansion card (MicroSD)

On your Garmin GPS: Go to the Main Menu -> Tracks -> Setup -> Data Card Setup.

The 'Log track to data card' should be checked. It then will save your track files to .gpx files on the MicroSD card. If you don't have one you should! They are very cheap and well worth it! It is important to note that the tracks don't show up on your saved tracks page. They are just stored on the card.

To get them turn your GPS in a USB mass storage device by going to Main Menu -> Setup -> Interface ->USB Mass storage

Then just plug your GPS and open it like a drive. You'll see a lot of GPX files sitting there waiting for you!

All of the tracks will be in a GPX format which look like this:

<trk>
<name>ACTIVE LOG070216</name>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="46.260431" lon="-63.131050">
<ele>31.502</ele>
<time>2007-10-30T10:02:16Z</time>
</trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>

The GPX files can then be easily converted to .kmz or .kml files for viewing in Google Earth/Maps.

Enjoy!

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