KINGS COUNTY, NS – A weather alert has been issued for strong winds in Kings County and warns things won’t settle until this weekend.
Weather Canada issued an alert Dec. 27 at 11:03 a.m. stating strong, cold winds will keep blowing today across Kings County as a cold Arctic airmass continues advancing over the area.
The alert describes the weather as cold, with temperatures combining with moderate to strong winds creating a wind chill of around minus 20 degrees Celsius.
The alert says this wind chill will drop to minus 26 to 30 degrees this evening, as the airmass gets even colder, and that the wind won’t pass until the weekend.
A windy Christmas season
This news follows hurricane-force winds that hit the province Christmas Day, causing 150,000 people to lose power in their homes.
Tiffany Chase, a Nova Scotia Power spokesperson, said that while 95 per cent of these people have had their power restored, these continuing winds still pose a threat to the company’s grids.
“The hurricane-force winds caused initial damage that’s been repaired, but they also weakened many trees that haven’t yet fallen,” said Chase.
“With the right gust of wind, those trees can certainly cause more damage.”
‘A place to warm up’
While unable to confirm whether winds in Kings County have caused more power outages, Chase did confirm 1,700 to 1,800 people across the province have once again lost power due to newly fallen trees and wind gusts.
Nova Scotia Power has said anyone newly without power will have it restored by the evening of Dec. 28.
Nova Scotia Power payment depots in Shelburne, Kentville, Stellarton, and Chester are also open to any person without power who, “needs a place to warm up, have a coffee, or recharge their phones,” according to NSP’s website, as of 8 a.m. this morning.
The Kentville location is at 3 Calkin Drive.
Anyone wanting to report severe weather conditions can email [email protected] or tweet using #NSStorm. To call Nova Scotia Power to alert them of fallen trees or outages, call 1-877-428-6004.