LATE February’s and early March’s exceptional weather is about to subside for a while – bright sunshine, cloudless skies and temperatures of up to 26ºC are starting to give way to rain and gale-force winds pushing 150 kilometres per hour.
‘Hurricane Laura’ has just entered Spain via Galicia in the far north-west, bringing with it four centimetres (nearly two inches) of rain and leading to over 100 emergency call-outs last night (Tuesday), although fortunately, nobody has been hurt.
Strong winds have now spread to the Mediterranean, but the full impact of ‘Hurricane Laura’ is due to strike over the next few days as it makes its way across the mainland.
Peak wind speeds were registered in Viveiro (Lugo province, Galicia) last night, at 149.3 kilometres per hour (93mph), and across the region’s other three provinces of A Coruña, Ourense and Pontevedra, ranged between 117 and 122 kilometres per hour (73-76mph).
Most of the emergency call-outs were for removing objects from roads, such as fallen trees and lamp posts.
Although the forthcoming weather episode is described as a ‘cold front’, temperatures nationwide will not fall greatly – only by around 5-6ºC on the whole, except for isolated incidents of drops of around 15ºC – and rainfall will not be heavy, although winds are expected to be very strong.
Generally, the ‘cold front’ will not last long – by around March 16 or 17, the sun will be shining again and daytime temperatures varying nationwide between around 10ºC and 21ºC, although the early hours of March 19 are expected to see the mercury plunge into single figures on Spain’s coasts.
