Felix Fizzles As It Heads Up Atlantic Coast

Feeble Felix, downgraded to a tropical storm and growing still weaker, moved up the Atlantic Ocean on Monday toward Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

“It will gradually be losing tropical characteristics as it moves into cold water,” said Max Mayfield, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

The storm, which had threatened Bermuda and the East Coast for a week, weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Sunday.

It was expected to spare New England as it continued north-northeast on a course expected to bring it close to the southeastern tip of Newfoundland sometime today, Mayfield said.

Late Monday, Felix’s center was 330 miles southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The storm was moving at 40 mph, and its maximum sustained wind speed was nearly 65 mph. To be a hurricane, a storm’s winds must blow at a steady 74 mph.

Felix grazed Bermuda last week, downing power lines and delaying the island’s referendum on independence from Britain.