HURRICANE Ophelia will bring gale-force winds and choppy seas to Spain's far north-western region of Galicia in the early hours of this Monday morning.
The tropical storm reached the Portuguese islands of the Azores at 23.00 on Wednesday and began to drift north-east, but will bypass the Canary Islands by several hundred kilometres.
It will remain some distance from mainland Galicia, around 500 kilometres away, but enough to cause high winds and tidal surges in the region somewhere between late Sunday night and early Monday morning, says the regional meteorological agency, MeteoGalicia.
By 18.00 on Monday, Hurricane Ophelia will have left Spain, skirting France by a very wide margin and cross the Republic of Ireland, settling over Northern Ireland and gradually heading across Scotland and the far north-west of England.
It will then burn itself out before reaching Scandinavia.
According to MeteoGalicia spokeswoman María Souto, gale-force winds are a worst-case scenario, but at the very least Hurricane Ophelia will cause temperatures to drop sharply over Sunday night and Monday morning in the region – except in the east of the provinces of Lugo and Ourense – after an unseasonably warm weekend forecast for Spain as a whole with the mercury soaring to around 30ºC.
Also, Monday in Galicia will bring rain, which could be heavy in localised areas.
Winds at high altitudes or on the coast are likely to reach between 70 and 90 kilometres per hour (44 to 56mph), but much stronger out to sea, meaning fishermen will be the most affected.
“It's not going to be a hurricane when it hits the region,” assured Sra Souto.
“Instead, it'll be a storm out to sea and, inland, a few hours of intense wind, especially above sea-level and on the coasts.”
