HALIFAX -- It's a damp July weekend forecast with periods of rain, drizzle, and fog expected. Not a complete washout though and the rain certainly could have been much heavier had Tropical Storm Fay moved in more directly.

On Friday afternoon, Tropical Storm Fay was located just off the coast of Delaware. It looks very likely that Fay will make a landfall in the state of New Jersey as early as Friday night. From there, Fay will move north through the state of New York and towards the Eastern Townships of southern Quebec. As it does so, it will combine with an approaching cold front from the west. This will likely result in the heaviest of the rain occurring along a line from Delaware into southern and western Quebec. Note that the area of heaviest rain associated with a tropical storm is most commonly seen on the western side of the track.

While that area of greatest rainfall potential is west of the Maritimes, the proximity of the two weather systems will be enough to bring us some wet weather this weekend. It is already very humid and tonight that humidity is likely to take the form of fog and patchy drizzle. Patchy drizzle will continue towards noon on Saturday for parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. A broken area of rain follows developing for western New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon. The rain fills in across New Brunswick and mainland Nova Scotia on Saturday evening. Rain and drizzle will reach Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton on Saturday night.

Rainfall Outlook Eastern

While still highly variable, the swath of heaviest rain that could exceed 50 mm will be just to the west of the expected track of Tropical Storm Fay.

For the Maritimes, the highest rain potential looks to be on the Bay of Fundy coastline of New Brunswick and the Atlantic coastline of Nova Scotia. There will be pockets of 15 to 30 mm for those areas and a general 5 to 15 mm is expected for the remainder of the Maritimes. Note that there is some tropical moisture tied up in this rain, so isolated downpours and thunderstorms will be possible. The initial band of rain clears early Sunday morning, but intermittent showers and drizzle look likely to linger in our region through the day Sunday.

Rainfall Outlook Maritimes

In some periods of rain and drizzle this weekend amounts of 5 to 15 mm with pockets of 15 to 30 mm look likely. There is tropical moisture tied up in the rain so some embedded downpours or thunderstorms are a risk.

Southerly winds will get gusty at times this weekend. General gusts of 20 to 50 km/h forecast for Saturday. Gusts as high as 40 to 60 km/h on Sunday. The southerly direction of the winds along with the rain in the forecast will keep humidity levels high in the Maritimes straight through into the start of next week.

As of 2 p.m. Friday, no statements, watches, or warnings have been issued by Environment Canada for the Maritime region.