Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 2022
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Hurricane Fiona was a large, powerful, and destructive tropical cyclone which was the most intense post-tropical cyclone to hit Canada on record. It was also the costliest cyclone to hit the country until this record was broken by Debby in 2024. It was the sixth named storm, third hurricane and first major hurricane of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season.
Fiona developed from a tropical wave that emerged from West Africa, before developing into a tropical depression east of the Leeward Islands on September 14. Though under the influence of moderate to strong wind shear, the system was able to strengthen, becoming Tropical Storm Fiona later that same day. On September 16, Fiona passed over Guadeloupe and entered the Caribbean Sea, where atmospheric conditions improved, and strengthened into a hurricane as it approached Puerto Rico two days later. A few hours afterward, the eye of Fiona made landfall along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, near Punta Tocon, between the municipalities of Lajas and Cabo Rojo. The hurricane made landfall in the Dominican Republic shortly thereafter, and then strengthened into the first major hurricane of the season. As the storm slowly moved through the Turks and Caicos, it continued to strengthen and reached Category 4 status the following day, while accelerating north. The storm reached peak 1-minute sustained winds of and a minimum pressure of . After passing Bermuda and weakening to Category 3 intensity, Fiona quickly transitioned into a large and powerful extratropical cyclone and struck Nova Scotia with sustained winds of early on September 24. Post-tropical Fiona then quickly weakened as it moved through the Gulf of St. Lawrence and over the southeastern Labrador Peninsula. The remnants then dissipated over the Labrador Sea near the southwest coast of Greenland on September 27.
Guadeloupe received near-record rainfall, leaving 40% of the population without water for a few days. Puerto Rico suffered from the worst flooding since Hurricane Maria of 2017, and an island-wide blackout occurred. A third of the territory's population was left without water, and at least 25 people died. In the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos, the islands were pounded by heavy rainfall and strong winds, causing flooding and blackouts. Fiona was the strongest cyclone on record to make landfall in Canada based on atmospheric pressure and was one of the wettest ever recorded in the country as well.
Meteorological history.
Early on September 12, 2022, the NHC began to monitor a tropical wave over the central tropical Atlantic for gradual development, though environmental conditions for development were assessed as only marginally favorable. Even so, shower and thunderstorm activity within the disturbance began to become more concentrated later that same day, then increased and became better organized during the next day. The circulation associated with the system became more defined and persisted overnight and into the morning of September 14, attaining sufficient organization to designated as Tropical Depression Seven later that day. Despite the continued effects of moderate westerly shear and dry mid-level air flow, new satellite imagery indicated the depression had strengthened, thus at 01:45 UTC on September 15, it became Tropical Storm Fiona.
The storm passed over Guadeloupe with winds on September 16, as it entered the eastern Caribbean. Early on September 18, the storm strengthened into a hurricane as it approached Puerto Rico. A few hours later, the eye of Fiona made landfall along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico near Punta Tocon between the municipalities of Lajas and Cabo Rojo at 19:20 UTC on September 18, with maximum sustained winds of and a minimum central pressure of . The storm emerged over the Mona Passage and strengthened slightly further before making landfall in the Dominican Republic near Boca de Yuma around 07:30 UTC the next morning, with maximum sustained winds of and a minimum central pressure of . Fiona weakened slightly over land, but after emerging off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic and back over the Atlantic Ocean, it began to intensify again, reaching Category 2 intensity at 21:00 UTC on September 19.
Fiona then reached Category 3 intensity at 06:00 UTC the next morning, becoming the first major hurricane of the season. Gradual strengthening continued and Fiona became a Category 4 hurricane at 06:00 UTC September 21. By 00:00 UTC on September 23, Fiona attained a minimum central pressure of (its lowest pressure while a tropical cyclone) at 30.8°N, the lowest such value at this latitude over the North Atlantic Ocean since at least 1979. Fiona then weakened slightly, dropping to Category 3 status at 09:00 UTC, ;ref name="36/" ; ;/ref ; but restrengthened back to Category 4 strength six hours later; at that time, with a central pressure of or lower, the storm was also the most intense Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record at such a northerly latitude. Six hours later, as it began interact with a mid- to upper-level trough, Fiona began to slowly weaken again and accelerated to the north-northeast at , and subsequently became a post-tropical cyclone as it became embedded within the larger-scale trough while still maintaining major hurricane-force winds of . Steady weakening continued and by 07:00 UTC on September 24, the center of Fiona made landfall with estimated winds of on the Canso Peninsula, Nova Scotia, near Whitehead; based on observations from a nearby weather station at Hart Island and the East Chedabucto Bay buoy, the central pressure at the time was estimated to have been , the lowest measured on record in association with a landfalling post-tropical cyclone in Canada, and a new national record from any storm. Wind gusts across Nova Scotia recorded figures in excess of , with Arisaig recording a peak of . Extremely large waves reached the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia late September 24. Buoy data indicated wave heights of . The largest offshore waves were near and east of Fiona's path; this was indicated by satellite data and reports from a buoy over Banquereau Bank where waves averaged with peak waves as high as .
Fiona then moved over Cape Breton Island with hurricane-strength winds and hit Prince Edward Island. It continued to weaken as it moved northward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. When the NHC issued its final advisory on Fiona at 21:00 UTC that same day, it was centered about northwest of Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, and had maximum sustained winds of . Fiona would continue to weaken as it moved erratically northward into the northwestern Atlantic before dissipating west of Greenland over Baffin Bay on September 27.
Preparations.
After the naming of Fiona, tropical storm watches were issued for the islands of Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Anguilla. These were raised to tropical storm warnings two advisories later with watches extended south to Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy, and St. Martin. As Fiona moved west, tropical storm watches then warnings were put in place for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Parts of the Dominican Republic also had tropical storm watches put in place.
On September 17, the first hurricane watches were put in place for Puerto Rico and soon after, the Dominican Republic. By 14:00 UTC the same day, the hurricane watch in Puerto Rico was upgraded to a hurricane warning with the watch extended to the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a result, Virgin Islands National Park closed.
On approach to Atlantic Canada, Fiona's unprecedented strength prompted the Canadian Hurricane Centre to warn residents of "heavy rainfall" and powerful "hurricane-force winds". The center also called the event "severe". Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the storm will be one that "everybody remembers". The Kejimkujik National Park temporarily closed due to the extratropical cyclone.
Impact.
At least 29 deaths have been confirmed throughout the Caribbean and Canada from Hurricane Fiona as of September 30. The search and rescue team took about two weeks to finish their search of people that were missing.
Guadeloupe.
Guadeloupe received large amounts of rain, at a rate of more than 150 mm per hour in some places where the rivers washed away dozen of roads and bridges, and one person died when his house was washed away in the floods near the Rivière des Pères in the district of Basse-Terre. Firefighters carried out 130 interventions and 23 people were rescued. The cyclonic swell reached and the gusts exceeded with a peak of at Baie-Mahault and at Anse-Bertrand. The storm left over 1.000 homeless and the minister Jean-François Carenco declared area of natural disaster September 24 for 22 towns.
Puerto Rico.
On September 18, Hurricane Fiona caused a power outage in the entirety of Puerto Rico. All aspects of the grid were damaged, including substations and high voltage power lines. Preliminary assessments indicated the grid suffered more than US$2 billion in damage. The winds from the storm covered the entire island bringing heavy rainfall. That day, U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency over the hurricane. A flash flood warning was declared on September 19. Roads were stripped of pavement due to Fiona's torrential rainfall, roofs were torn off houses, and at least one bridge was completely washed away. A million people, about 33% of the population, were left without drinking water. Two days after the storm, less than 10% of customers had their power restored. A gauge near Ponce measured inches of rain, while winds gusted to as high as . Many landslides were recorded throughout the island. Many crops were destroyed, and agriculture secretary Ramón González Beiró forecast a roughly $100 million loss this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency over the storm on September 18, 2022, and all flights to and from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport were canceled. On the same day, the effects of Fiona's massive rainfall cut off all of the power in Puerto Rico. At least 21 deaths in Puerto Rico have been attributed to the hurricane.
Dominican Republic.
The eye of Hurricane Fiona made landfall along the coast of the Dominican Republic near Boca de Yuma at 07:30 UTC on September 19. It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the country in 18 years.
President Luis Abinader declared state of emergency in five southeastern provinces and three northeastern provinces and visited La Altagracia, El Seibo and Hato Mayor — the most damaged provinces — on September 20, 2022. Over one million people were left without running water and another 350,000 in the country were left without electricity in the country after Fiona had passed. Widespread rainfall totals of drenched the country. At least 2 people were killed and over 8,300 homes were destroyed in the Dominican Republic. President Abinader stated that damage from the storm exceeded 20 billion pesos (US$375 million).
Turks and Caicos.
Fiona's eye passed through the Grand Turks island, severely affecting the telecommunications in the archipelago. At least 40% of the territory was left without electricity, with total blackouts reported in North Caicos, Middle Caicos, South Caicos, Grand Turk and Salt Cay. 30% of Providenciales experienced power outages. Moderate damage and no deaths were reported.
Antigua.
During the New Zealand women's cricket team tour of the West Indies in September and October 2022, the three-match Women's One Day Internationals (WODI) had to be rescheduled due to the impact of Fiona. The first WODI, scheduled to be played on September 16, was postponed to September 19 and the remaining two matches also had to be rescheduled.
Bermuda.
Passing west of the island, Fiona's large size produced sustained tropical storm-force winds over Bermuda for several hours; L.F. Wade International Airport reported a gust of . Over 80% of the island lost power.
Eastern Canada.
Fiona made landfall near Whitehead, Nova Scotia, on the morning of September 24 as a recently transitioned extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. Environment Canada assessed Fiona's maximum sustained winds at the time of landfall to be around ; these winds would be comparable to a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. It was the strongest storm in Canadian history as gauged by barometric pressure; a pressure of 932.7 mbar (hPa; 27.54 inHg) was unofficially measured on Hart Island, setting the all-time low pressure record for any landfalling cyclone on Canadian shores. The pressure was also potentially lower than any other air pressure measurement along the coast of eastern Northern America outside of the United States Gulf Coast states. Other weather stations also documented pressures below the previous record of . A peak wind gust of was recorded in Arisaig, Nova Scotia. Peak gusts in other Canadian provinces included at Wreckhouse, Newfoundland and Labrador, at