It’s a record - a gust of wind measured at 176 kmph,* was recorded at Figueira da Foz on Saturday night as Hurricane Leslie swept over the Portuguese coastline, heading inland towards northern Spain.
This single blast elicited a statement from Portugal’s IPMA weather service, "this is highest value recorded in stations of the national meteorological network."
The IPMA added that the previous maximum wind speed was 169 kilometers per hour, on October 17, 2015.
It’s little cause for celebration, Hurricane Leslie destroyed restaurants, houses, beach walkways and trashed electricity networks leaving 300,000 homes without power.
Several high and medium voltage lines were down as their supports were damaged. EDP Distribution has more than 500 engineers working to repair the network.
A note published on the IPMA site reads, “the Figueira da Foz - Vila Verde weather station registered a gust of 176 kilometers per hour at 22:40 on Saturday, a figure attributed to a phenomenon called 'sting jet,' a term often misused to describe general high winds resulting from hurricanes and cyclones.
A sting jet is a relatively localized jet of rapidly descending cold air inside a deep extra-tropical cyclone. It affects a small region, compared to the size of the cyclone. Destructive winds of over 150 kmph have been attributed to sting jets.
The designation of 'sting jet' stems from the fact that the signature of this phenomenon in satellite and radar images resembles that of the tail of a scorpion.
(*176 kilometres-per-hour is the same as 109.4 miles-per-hour, in old money...)
