Mallorca suffered a bit of a turmoil weather-wise over the last ten days. October 29th brought gale force winds and torrential rain to the Palma, Calvià and Andratx areas with the loss of one life in Sant Elm. The port of Palma was closed for two hours. A small merchant vessel hit the rocks near Peguera and caused an emergency alarm due to spillage of large amounts of fuel. The Balearic Emergency Services recorded wind speeds of 99 km/h with violent gusts of over 120 km/h. The Meteorological station in Lluc registered 195 l of rain on Friday, October 24th and a monthly total of 439 l in Lluc as opposed to 176 l for the average monthly measure.

The first snow of the year fell in the higher Tramuntana mountains on October 30th, the first October snow that the island had seen in 34 years. The Mallorcan mountain range sees snow some years but not many, and usually during the months of February or March. Last year, there was some early snowfall in Mallorca in November.

All Saints day saw blue skies with temperatures of 22º C in large parts of the island, whilst yesterday, it was back to gusty showers and torrential downpours, at least where I live. The port of Palma was closed again yesterday, this time for more than 13 hours. The gale warning continues to be in place at least until tomorrow, November 4th.

What a chaotic weather pattern, or so one would say unless one remembers the pandemonium that hit the island a year ago, October 4th, when two people lost their lives in Mallorca as a result of two tornados hitting the island. 

The photo was taken near Colònia de Sant Jordi, Mallorca, Spain. The date: November 1st, 2008. The time was 13:33:05.