Subtropical storm Nicole could bring wind to Maine, Maritimes

MIAMI – A quirky little storm named Nicole sent gusty winds across Bermuda on Sunday and could trouble parts of eastern New England and Canada’s Maritime provinces by Wednesday.

Nicole has a chance to build and strengthen as it merges with another Atlantic system on a track that takes it north and then northeast over the next few days. Bermuda was feeling gale-force gusts as high as 56 mph, rain and higher surf, but the island’s weather was expected to improve early today.

Nantucket and Cape Cod in Massachusetts and the coasts of Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia may feel the storm’s outer effects, with 40-mph winds extending 200 miles.

At 8 p.m. Sunday, Nicole’s center was about 60 miles west-northwest of Bermuda, moving toward the northeast at 14 mph.

A northward motion was expected later Sunday evening into today.

Nicole doesn’t meet the definition of a tropical storm and probably won’t because it lacks the classic strong core winds and heavy showers. But the empty-centered storm, defined as subtropical, is ringed by bands of 45-mph maximum sustained winds.

“The winds are spread out in a band well removed from the center,” said Richard Pasch, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “We don’t think this one has much potential to become a tropical storm.”

Nicole is the 14th named storm in an active Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.