The perfect storm!
At the end of February, Madeira was hit again by another storm. Battered and windswept, the island now so familiar to wet wintry weather in recent years, probably had enough rainfall in three days to solve the water shortage problem in the UK that has been the subject of many a headline in the news lately! Most people come to Madeira either to move or on a holiday for its warm climate and lazy, hazy days of sun, but as with any country, where there is good weather it only makes sense that there should be some bad weather too and Madeira is no exception. Sunshine can never be guaranteed along with weather reports and it doesn’t help either, when Madeira has pockets of mini micro climates all over the island. It can be beautiful warm sunshine in Funchal, cloudy and cold in Nun’s Valley and pouring with rain in Calheta whilst foggy and cool in Porto Moniz, all at the same time. Getting up in the morning and having the benefit of a sea view and judging what the day will bring, can give one an idea of what to wear before going out, but can quickly change as soon as you get in the car. But generally speaking, we do expect torrential rain during our mild winters, the odd lightening storm and hurricane type winds. It was only a few weeks ago, when a storm hit the island in the middle of the night, knocking out the power on the West side of the island, which in turn blew the fuses in my own phone lines, knocking them out for about 4 days. Sometimes, our water supply gets cut off as higher up in the mountains, mains water pipes burst as mini landslides occur, resulting in thick sludgy mud to deposit from the kitchen tap. Rain can be a real problem particularly to owners who live in the older style houses as the winds drive the rain up and under roof tiles causing small leaks to appear where they weren’t before. These roofs were built in the days before membrane materials such as roofing felt were available and tiles are the only protection from the elements. If a tile should crack and it rains, you’ve had it, I should know, I now have 10 leaks in my own house and buckets and pots all over the place!
But there is an upside to bleak weather in that lately our storms have created a most visually stunning sight causing Mother Nature to show off her powers again. That vast ocean that surrounds our tiny island showed us last week how spectacularly angry it can get. Only in recent years have we been able to marvel at the power of the waves that batter the coastline as newly constructed marinas and manmade coastal walkways built beyond the natural line of the coast has created a new wall for the sea to have a go at destroying.
As you can see by the pictures of Lugar de Baixo some of the damage inflicted on the Marina and the problems that the construction has had to endure with our rough weather, but nothing can be so relaxing as listening to the roaring sounds of hefty waves thundering down on the shoreline and washing the pebbles away, as nothing can beat living near the sea!