HALIFAX -- Environment Canada says Hurricane Nicole will lash the Grand Banks this weekend with gale-force wind and waves, but Atlantic Canada will otherwise be spared the violent storm that pounded Bermuda.

Nicole was about 700 kilometres northeast of the British archipelago Friday morning, and heading out to sea.

"The way she's tracking now, it will have minimal impact on anywhere here in Atlantic Canada," Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bob Robichaud said Friday afternoon.

"It would have to make one drastic move to be anything other than what we have in the forecast."

The forecaster says ocean swells of two to three metres can be expected along the south-facing coastlines of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland over the weekend.

But otherwise no "significant effects" are anticipated on land, good news in a region recovering from last weekend's wallop from a storm fuelled by tropical moisture associated with Hurricane Matthew.

"You might notice there is a little bit of swell, but then again you may not. It's right at the limit of what you'll be able to see in terms of wave action," said Robichaud.

The centre says it expects swells of four to six metres over the southern Grand Banks this weekend.