An extreme wind phenomenon, probably a tornado, in the parish of São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the municipality of Silves, yesterday, at 18:20 pm, destroyed two prefabricated houses, leaving two people displaced, and caused large trees to fall, which damaged vehicles.
The event also affected eight houses, causing damage mainly to the roof, and causing telecommunications and energy poles to fall, explained Pedro Araújo, operations officer at the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC).
The two displaced people were welcomed by family members, he also said, in a statement to Lusa, at 00:30, about the last 24 hours of bad weather in mainland Portugal.
Before, starting at 13:30 pm on Thursday, another extreme wind phenomenon hit the Tagus estuary, with periods of very intense wind, which caused damage in Almada, Moita and Montijo, in the district of Setúbal, and more intense precipitation to the north of the Tagus, in Greater Lisbon, in municipalities such as Lisbon, Vila Franca de Xira, Oeiras or Cascais, detailed Pedro Araújo.
Among the incidents, he highlighted damage to a restaurant in Almada, to the roofs of houses in Sarilhos Grandes (Montijo) and Sarilhos Pequenos (Moita), falling trees and power and communication poles
This phenomenon in the Lisbon area is being analyzed by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), as it could technically constitute a tornado.
Also this Thursday, at 14:38 pm, an accident involving four vehicles caused 13 minor injuries and one assisted, recalled the ANEPC commander.
The accident led to the closure of traffic in the south-north direction of the A13, between Salvaterra de Magos and Almeirim, in the district of Santarém, with circulation being reestablished at 17:30 pm.
Between 00:00 and 23:59 on Thursday, mainland Portugal recorded 662 incidents, with the majority being tree falls (285), floods (154), structure falls (118) and road cleaning (72).
These occurrences mainly affected Greater Lisbon (215), Algarve (58) and Lezíria do Tejo (48), affecting the North and Central coast and the Algarve.
Between 18pm on Monday and 00:23pm on Wednesday, 59 incidents had been recorded.
On Wednesday, the day was also one of “great instability”, but the incidents were mainly located in the Greater Lisbon region, highlighted Pedro Araújo.
“Lisbon’s weather stations recorded the highest amount of precipitation. We are talking about very marked differences, that is, there were places where not even the stations recorded precipitation and those in Lisbon had very high values, almost reaching the orange level of precipitation”, he explained.
On Thursday, bad weather generated incidents in more areas of the continent, such as Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon and Faro.
Pedro Araújo underlined that the Civil Protection recommendations for the population remain in place, due to the special blue level alert status until 23:59 pm on Sunday, due to the possibility of occasional situations resulting from bad weather in some parts of mainland Portugal.
“There is always the possibility that more intense precipitation may occur, accompanied by thunderstorms and gusts of wind, and their probability also decreases over time”, highlighted the ANEPC commander.
Storm Nelson is affecting the weather in mainland Portugal, where until Easter Sunday, “precipitation will be constant”, according to IPMA.
“This precipitation may be accompanied by thunderstorms and hail, with greater probability on the 29th and 30th. Snowfall is expected in the mountains of the North region and in Serra da Estrela, especially in the highest points of this elevation”, he warned.
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