Boats upturned, cars damaged, windows and doors of local bars blown in – these were the results of a mini tornado that whipped up havoc in Faro docks yesterday evening.
Elsewhere, the country was being battered by bad weather – trees uprooted, power lines down, hail, thunderstorms and chilling cold in northern districts with accompanying snowfall.
Yesterday’s extreme weather phenomenon in Faro took everyone by surprise.
Shortly before 5.30pm, people in the area started to notice the swirling out to sea as a cloud appeared to be attached to the surface by a whirling finger of water rushing towards the land.
“It was all very fast”, Faro ports captain Cortes Lopes told Portuguese news website Sulinformação.
In fact Lopes didn’t see the tornado making landfall, he simply heard the “incredible noise” as it scooped up boats, battered bars and sent shards of debris into the air.
The destructive whirlygig travelled on into the centre of town where it caused further damage, uprooting trees, damaging cars and various structures.
Meteorologists have dubbed the incident a “tornado of weak intensity” but for those in its path it was definitely strong on impact.
Today will see boat, car and bar owners totting up the damage.
We will update with more information as it comes in.
But this is definitely not the end of this week’s high winds, rain and extreme weather conditions, brought in on storm Emma.
Portugal is on ‘yellow weather alert’ until Friday – with areas of the Algarve expected to exit this risk category by 9pm today.
Elsewhere the likelihood of seriously horrible weather will continue for at least another 12 hours.
With maximum temperatures in the Algarve still a very bearable 18ºC (minimums not dropping below 13º C), they are down to 8º in northern areas, with minimums expected of around 1ºC.
Considering the Siberian temperatures of northern Europe where storm Emma is due to meet storm David, Portugal has been faring quite well.
Nonetheless meteorologists have told TSF radio this morning that the next few hours will see waves coming in from the southwest of between 5-6 metres, and accompanying high winds which could prompt further issues in the Algarve.
Paula Leitão of IPMA described a “very serious situation that is not common”.
In Madeira there have been various reports of damages caused by the weather, and one man was swept out to sea last night at Praia Formosa. Searches are still ongoing today.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
