First Posting | Summary
Posting Date: January 25, 2009, 7:30:00 PM
On Friday afternoon, Météo France issued a rare red alert for a strong winter storm to hit five departments of southwest France on Saturday. The forecast was for a storm of similar intensity to 1999's winter storm Martin, though likely of more limited geographic scope. In fact, winter storm Klaus, as yesterday's storm has been dubbed, affected a wider swath than had originally been forecast, causing damage from Dordogne area south to Barcelona, in Spain's Catalunya region.
Wind gusts of 160 km/h and higher were recorded in various locations across the region. A 184 km/h gust was recorded in the eastern Pyrenees near Perpignan. According to Météo France, it was the strongest since records began. Across the storm's path, roofs were torn off, signs and awnings downed and automobiles damaged by fallen trees or collapsed masonry walls. French television footage has shown toppled chimneys and overturned trucks. By Sunday morning, more than 1.1 million households were still without electricity, rail networks remained out of service and roads were impassible as a result of downed trees. Large tracts of pine forest were flattened by the storm, most notably in the Landes, a department in southwest France on the border with Spain important for its timber industry.
Four people are reported to have died in France as a result of the storm. This compares to more than 80 that were killed by Martin in 1999. Officials are attributing the low death toll from yesterday's event to advanced warnings issued by meteorological organizations.
The storm also caused significant damage across northern Spain, where at least eleven people were killed. In Sant Boi de Llobregat, near Barcelona, four children died when the concrete block walls and corrugated iron roof of a sports complex collapsed. Several more were injured, with some in critical condition. Waves as high as 21 meters were recorded off northern Spain's Basque coast, according to the regional ministry of the interior. By Sunday, firefighters in Tarragona, Alicante and Valencia were working to control existing wildfires that had been fanned by the storm's high winds and new ones sparked by downed electrical lines.
Images from the storm can be found on the BBC website
here.
The AIR meteorological team is currently collecting and analyzing observation data for winter storm Klaus, which will be used as input into the AIR Extratropical Cyclone Model for Europe. Further information will be made available tomorrow via AIR's CATWeek NewsALERT.
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