Tag Archives: storms

Mallorca lashed by storms

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Filed under Nature, Weather/Climate

We have old friends holidaying on the island in a finca down in the southeast. Like many sun-starved Brits, they were longing for some Mediterranean warmth and sunshine during their two weeks’ holiday on Mallorca. How disappointing for them that the weather changed on Sunday (the day after their arrival), with thunderstorms and rain replacing the fine spring weather we’d been enjoying over the past few weeks.

If Sunday’s storm wasn’t enough, we had more yesterday and last night. Yes, another night when The Boss had to get up, get out and switch off our solar power electricity system.  It was all quite dramatic – with some incredibly loud claps of thunder that rattled every pane of glass in our little casa – but, here in our valley, there wasn’t anything like the quantity of rain that fell elsewhere on the island.

Deluge day

Just five minutes’ drive from our home is a winery and, last night, we saw on the local IB3 TV news that their cellar had been flooded. Today, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports rainfall yesterday in Campos (in the south of Mallorca), of some 69 litres per square metre and, in Palma, 47 litres/sq.m. TV news footage and social media photos show that Palma took quite a hit too, with flooding on some major roads and trees brought down in the city centre. The Bulletin also reports that 360 bolts of lightning struck the island in less than three hours.

Having been the victims of bad weather (and a dodgy roof) in the past, we feel for those people across Mallorca who are mopping up the mess and assessing damage this morning. As I look out of the window at a benign spring day with sun shining from a blue sky, I can’t help wondering: who counts the bolts of lightning?

The storm approaches. Meanwhile, we were sipping coffee in the sunshine.

The storm approaches. Meanwhile, we were sipping coffee in the sunshine.

 

 

 

Up on The Roof

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Filed under Building works, Tools and machines

An early start to the working day. Photo by The Boss.

Builders in Spain often get a bad press but, so far, we’re really pleased with the progress on re-roofing our finca in Mallorca. Juan, Junior, Mustafa, Emilio and the rest of the gang – the make-up of which changes by the day – seem to be doing a great job.

On Wednesday mornings, I present a 10-minute ‘What’s on in Mallorca’ slot on Talk Radio Europe, which is based in Marbella but also broadcasts to the island on 103.9 FM (and online at www.talkradioeurope.com). Usually this is done on the phone from home, which would have been almost impossible this week because of the noise of the work, but fortunately the station was doing an outside broadcast from Palma de Mallorca, so I had another excuse to leave the dirt and din behind for a few hours to head for a clean, sound-insulated studio. Far less painful than having a molar extracted, the previous day . . .

Men on a Mission

Storms and heavy rain are forecast for the next few days, and there’s an air of urgency to the work today. The men arrived before 8am, on a mission to cover the roof with a layer of cement, to make it fully watertight, before they leave (tomorrow is a public holiday in Spain). It’s the noisiest day of the project so far, with the constant churning of a cement mixer and the throaty rumbling of the large lorry which arrived during my absence yesterday. The latter is an impressive man-toy, with a massive extendable hydraulic arm, activated by a remote control unit. I can tell that The Boss is itching to have a go at the controls, but he has to be content with watching the huge red arm hoist the containers of cement from the ground up to the rooftop, where Emilio and Mustafa are spreading it out smoothly like chocolate on a Sachertorte.

Such is the urgency, the men didn’t have their usual siesta after eating their packed lunches down by the fig tree. And such is the mechanical noise, the usual day-long conversation has been drowned out.

Tomorrow, peace and quiet will reign again in our valley. Until the sound of the forecast thunder . . .

Jan Edwards Copyright 2012

It’s Spring Again!

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Weather/Climate

It was a long hot summer on Mallorca … and now it’s spring again. And if you’re thinking I’ve been indulging in a little too much of Mallorca’s many excellent wines, I should explain: we’re now in what the locals call ‘winter spring’. And it is literally like a second spring.

During the hottest months of the summer little happens in the garden. Plants appear to go into a comatose state, as they struggle to survive without water, and only perk up again after the first storms of the autumn have given everything a long cool drink and a jolly good wash. After the first autumn storms – mercifully nowhere near as severe as those in southern Spain – everything in the garden looks perky and a brighter green. There’s new growth . . . sadly, most of it in the weed category.

And, today, October 1st, we were greeted by the sight of what I think are autumn crocus – but please correct me if I’m wrong – which were definitely not there a day or two ago.

There’s nothing like that to put a spring in your step on a Monday morning!

Good morning Mallorca

Jan Edwards Copyright 2012