I had 14 pines break or fall over; mostly big tall ones.
Several willow trees too.
A couple of accias and some fencing, but they hardly count.

The rain is welcome though; the Santa Clara dam in up to 72% today. If this keeps up, it might even get full before summer.

How are you all doing?

We are currently in Queluz as wife had her AIMA appointment yesterday, which I will cover in another post. We got here on Tuesday to mixed rain and sunshine. There are lots of trees down including one in a small river that got washed downstream and got caught in a hydraulic trap, and another large tree about 100 yards away on the side of the river which crashed down right through a basketball court. We walked the palace gardens here on Tuesday afternoon and they seem to have lost none of the probably thousands of trees that make the gardens such a beautiful place and a must visit.

well I have just finished building my Ark.............put it that way

I might snorkel into town later though

rain....rain ...and errrrr more rain, biblical at times, no lasting damage, although it did find its way through the walls in the kitchen monday night/tuesday morning (the kitchen is half underground built into the hillside) thought I had cracked it this year until the deluge.............nowt a few towels couldnt sort out, back to the drawing board for next winter on that one spot.

on the plus side, the Sikagard 700 did a fantastic job on the rest of the exterior stonework, didnt expect it to live up to its claims, however for a very rare occurance something actually does what it says on the tin.

Solar array ripped from roof taking beams and tiles with it ,we were busy tidying up blown about items 10 minutes before it landed on the terrace, would have killed us but for luck. ( about 4.30 yesterday morning)

Chapp fences hanging by a thread ,guttering ripped off ,now water coming through ceilings.

Feeling abandoned by our insurance company at present, but they have a local office, time to visit later today.

(no water ,power all day yesterday, now have power. Water, no Internet yet though)

Ouch!
That sounds like some serious damage. Where are you located?

So sorry to hear this. Good luck at the insurance office.

Rosemary

Small village outside caldas da rainha
Unfortunately in this case on top of a hill 😕

It's hard to remember the last day without lashing rain here in deepest Alentejo - I'm tired of hearing wind howling and rain coming down in bucketloads! Our own barragem was full by the end of December and is now just flooding the valley on the way to the nearest barranco, which has changed from a dry stream-bed to a raging torrent. There is no chance to do much to clear up outside, let alone anything more constructive (I had a shed delivered earlier this month...... it's still in boxes outside and wrapped in plastic sheet with bricks and tiles to hold it down!!. The gale the night before last ripped a 4" branch off one of our Yucca trees and deposited it on the machine-house roof (but apparently with no damage to the structure), and all sorts of garbage from the other trees has been strewn across the patio and into the pool. The wind also overturned a wheelbarrow, sent the recycling bins on a journey to the boundary fence and ripped off most coverings, whilst rain from every imaginable direction has soaked most of our stored firewood whether in the wood-shed or otherwise covered. Deep joy!

Our access to the road is now cut by a fast-running stream where water is draining of the surrounding fields, the ground there is completely sodden and any mud has turned to slime, so it's fun even getting on and off our property, let alone along the 1.5km dirt track before you hit metalled surface. The joys of life in "o cú de Judas"!! We've also sprung a number of leaks..... nothing serious, but a PITA when you can't dry anything out before the next storm. Everyone says they remember times like this back in the 90's, but not since (and certainly not in our 12 years).

Not a winter to be remembered fondly.

Anyone else remember the cloudless blue skies in Nov, Dec Jan Feb of 20 years ago, in the Algarve at least?
Of course because of that it was very cold at night, but this change to continuous cloud and rain, in the winter, has slowly become the norm.
Question is, Is this now a fixture of Portugal weather in winter, combined with more heat in summer.

I hope not...... I remember when I lived in the Algarve. About now you'd be seeing the almond blossom starting to bloom and the smell of woodsmoke in the air(it had a very pleasant smell). Now it appers gloomy and damp,although we left the Algarve as it started to really get overdeveloped(IMO) returned to Uk for a number of years and are back here now although not in the Algarve
We've been pretty lucky here with the weather.Got the winds and storm,but no damage of note ,except a large branch broke off a tree outside and landed on top of our fence and palm. Sent email to local Camara and they hauled it away within the week!!!!? Few bushes now bent a bit further and some old dead trees look pretty skeletal.
Had no TV and internet for the best part of 5 days though.(*!!&).There's a wire outside from a internet/tele pole that's just about to do someone an injury if they pass in the dark as its only about 4 ft from the ground.

bits of localised damage around here, a few trees blown over and some minor landslides onto roads due to the heavy rain............. no doubt soon to taped off with the ubiquitous red and white plastic magic barrier tape

They are saying that the Atlantic is experiencing increased wind speeds or projected to increase in the coming years. Same for us in Ireland and although we are used to wind here, it is getting more extreme or storms happen more often. This year hasn't been too bad but last year we thought the roof would come off and were without power for over a week. That is the downside being at the edge of the Atlantic but climate changing everywhere.

https://globalwindatlas.info/en/area/Portugal/Faro

Just checked satellite and looks like some serious amounts of rain for parts of Portugal and Spain. This could lead to very bad flooding in next few days. Be careful 🙏

Rain hammering on the roof woke us up an hour ago.

We had minor stuff in the last storm, cushions in the pool, few pots over.

The track is becoming almost impassable, will have to borrow a friend's tractor soon, I think.

This rain is more like the historical norm I think. Old guy told me that when he was a child, it rained like this every year.
The Iberian peninsula has been drying up for the last couple of decades, some say even turning to desert.
While the rain might be inconvenient, and the wind damaging, the replenishing of ground water is essential to sustain life.

Be happy!

I cleaned up 8 of my fallen trees yesterday. I'll clean up the rest after the storm has passed.