Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds - nearly a week after devastating parts of the Caribbean - as houses have been washed away and hundreds of thousands are without power in one of the strongest storms ever to hit the country.
The National Hurricane Center said the center of the storm, now called Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona after being downgraded from a hurricane, was crossing eastern Nova Scotia, bringing high winds - some the level of a Category 1 hurricane - and heavy rains.
The storm had weakened somewhat as it travelled north. As of 5 a.m., the storm was about 160 miles northeast of Halifax, carrying maximum winds of 90 miles per hour and barreling north at around 26 mph, the NHC said.
Hurricane-force winds extended up to 175 miles out from Fiona's center while tropical-storm-force winds reached up to 405 miles out as of 8 a.m. ET, according to the NHC.
The Canadian Hurricane Center called the storm 'the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada.' Lower pressure systems cause more intense storms, providing lift and moisture in the atmosphere to fuel showers and thunderstorms.
The 931.6 mb measurement would be not only a Canadian record but the lowest pressure ever observed in either Canada or the US for any storm north of the Gulf Coast, according to Yale Climate Connections.
The pressure is similar to what is usually expected with a Category 4 hurricane but it's only a tropical storm because of the wide differential in pressure across the storm.
Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their main source of energy. But post-tropical cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, although they have a cold core and no visible eye. They also often lose their symmetric form and more resemble a comma.
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