Hurricane Fiona was the first major hurricane of the quiet but destructive 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. Fiona was also the most intense hurricane of 2022. The storm started off as a tropical wave, and it became tropical storm Fiona as it approached the Lesser Antilles. The storm made landfall in Guadeloupe a couple of days later and began to intensify as it slowly moved west. Fiona became a hurricane as it made brief landfall in southwest Puerto Rico, and it made landfall in the Dominican Republic about 12 hours later. The storm then turned north and exited the island. Fiona began to rapidly intensify, and it passed near the Turks and Caicos as a category 3. Fiona continued to move northward, reaching Category 4 status. The storm maintained its intensity and grew in size over the next couple of days as it approached Bermuda. While Fiona's eyewall passed west of Bermuda, the island still experienced hurricane-force winds. Despite cold sea-surface temperatures, baroclinic forcing (caused by a powerful upper-level trough) allowed Fiona to maintain major hurricane status as it transitioned into a very powerful post-tropical cyclone. The massive system (which was still the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane) struck Nova Scotia, before slowly weakening as it moved north. In Puerto Rico, the storm caused wind damage along with catastrophic flooding. The island, which still hadn't fully recovered from hurricane Maria in 2017, suffered major infrastructure damage, and all of Puerto Rico was left without power. Major damage also occurred in the Dominican Republic. Ex-Fiona was also a historic storm for Atlantic Canada. While not confirmed by official measurements, several unofficial measurements suggest Fiona was the most intense storm ever to hit Canada, with a pressure of 932.7 mb being unofficially recorded. The storm caused widespread wind damage across Novia Scotia, and it is the costliest storm in Canadian history. ----- Tags: #Scratchmaster295 #2022 #TropicalCyclone
