2.5°C Not observed 
CHATHAM, Mass. - The remnants of Hurricane Earl dumped wind-driven rain on the grey-shingled cottages and fishing villages of Massachusetts' Cape Cod on Friday night, disrupting people's vacations on the unofficial final weekend of the short New England summer.
The storm swooped into New England waters as a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph (112 kph) after sideswiping North Carolina's Outer Banks, where it caused flooding but no injuries and little damage.
The storm passed wide of New York City, Long Island and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region, but brought swirling rain as it passed just off Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard late Friday night.
Vacationers had pulled their boats from the water and cancelled Labor Day weekend reservations on Nantucket, the well-to-do resort island and old-time whaling port. Shopkeepers boarded up their windows. Swimmers in New England were warned to stay out of the water — or off the beach altogether — because of the danger of getting swept away by high waves.
Airlines cancelled dozens of flights into New England, and Amtrak suspended train service between New York and Boston.
No large-scale evacuations were ordered for Cape Cod, where fishermen and other hardy year-round residents have been dealing with gusty nor'easters for generations.
"We kind of roll with the punches out here. It's not a huge deal for us," said Scott Thomas, president of the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Earl will likely be a marginal category 1 hurricane when it reaches the Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia on Saturday morning. Hurricanes usually weaken and become tropical storms when they enter Canada's colder waters, but many residents of Halifax, Nova Scotia stocked up on bottled water and canned goods fearing Earl could be as bad as Hurricane Juan in 2003, which killed eight and caused millions in damages.
Others counted on Earl being downgraded. A Biker rally that's expected to draw thousands in Digby, Nova Scotia on Saturday wasn't cancelled. Thousands of motorcycles lined the main street on Friday night.
Bob Martin, of Halifax, said the looming storm wasn't a big deal.
"We're putting our motorcycles in a buddy's garage," he said. "We're just going to party and let the storm go by."
By midday Friday, Earl had dropped to a Category 1 storm — down from a fearsome Category 4 with 145 mph (233 kph) winds a day earlier. By 8 p.m. (0000 GMT), Earl was a weak hurricane with maximum sustained winds just above the threshold for a hurricane. It seemed likely to be a tropical storm by the time it passed southeast of Nantucket.
As Earl lost steam and veered farther east, the National Hurricane Center reduced the New England areas under a hurricane warning to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, the elite vacation spot that President Barack Obama left just last weekend.
The last time the Cape was hit directly by a hurricane was 1991, when Bob ripped through the region's grassy dunes, snapped trees and tore roofs off the weathered grey homes.
Rain from the outer bands of the hurricane forced a 25-minute delay at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York City. It also forced the postponement of a Red Sox-White Sox game in Boston.
