At 03:00 this morning, Madeira was hit by exceptional winds, with many gusts reaching red warning values.
In Santa Cruz/Airport, the anemometer marked 147 km/h at 03:20, the highest value in the IPMA network. This was followed by 122 km/h in Ponta do Sol/Lugar de Baixo, 116 km/h in Chão do Areeiro, 112 km/h in Ponta do Pargo, and 103 km/h in Caniçal/Ponta de São Lourenço — all orange warning values.
Other stations also recorded significant winds: 98 km/h in Pico Alto, 96 km/h in Prazeres, 91 km/h in Ponta de São Jorge, 89 km/h in Porto Santo/Airport, and 73 km/h in both Cancela/SRPC and Monte.
Funchal/Observatory was the only station with an anemometer where the wind did not reach warning level, with gusts of up to 57 km/h.
Rain was felt throughout the network of weather stations, although without extreme values consistent with the yellow warning: Ponta do Sol/Lugar de Baixo, Pico do Areeiro, and Chão do Areeiro were less than 1 mm from the yellow warning threshold for precipitation.
The ‘gale’ also brought cooling of the air to the surface: at 03:20 am, Funchal/Observatory recorded 13.9 ºC, while in Pico do Areeiro, at 06:00, the thermometer dropped to 2.0 ºC. In Porto Santo, the temperature dropped to 12.7 ºC at 03:50.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
