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Dawn sky over Tenerife on Monday, November 28th, 2005.Today is the first anniversary of Tropical Storm Delta that whipped through the Canary Islands on November 28th and 29th, 2005. Later denominated as an Extratropical Cyclone, though the precise distinction in terms is lost on the "ordinary folk" of these islands. Whatever it was, we remember it for the wake of damage it left, valued at $364+ million, with 7 deaths and 12 disappeared.

Delta was the worst storm that these islands have suffered and local media cannot help but comment on it again today and point out that residents in the Canary Islands still live with the fear that that something similar could happen again. The question of course, is whether these islands are prepared, if such a storm should hit us again.

Despite the alerts, nobody took it seriously enough and, therefore, for the most part, Delta took the Canary Islands almost completely by surprise. Some 200,000 people in Tenerife, the hardest hit, were left without electricity, a number of whom were also without water and, some of those lacked these basic services for up to a week.

Many point to the lack of provision for such emergencies in the archipelago, remembering that most of the population was left without electricity at some point and that there were no generators on the islands to cope with the situation.

Many of the population were left without water, most of us suffered damages and loss of electrical appliances, frozen food had to be thrown away, agriculture and business suffered huge financial losses, yet, so far, there has been no indemnification.


Electric tower fallen. Photo: Mataparda
One of the most impacting images was that of the fallen electrical pylons, found to be in an "elevated" state of oxidation.

Several towers were brought down by the high winds alongside the TF-1 motorway, causing chaos, not just with the electrical supply, but also with the traffic.

Finally, yesterday, the parliamentary commission set up to investigate the response to Delta, decided unanimously, that responsibility for bad management falls jointly upon both central and Canary Islands administrations, as well as the electricity company, Unelco-Endesa, for the weaknesses in the Canarian electrical supply system.

Some are interpreting that decision as good news, but I think my friend Bernardo Sagastume at ABC gives us the best analysis on the subject, saying that, "those culpable ... are various and, at the same time, nobody."

That was my reading of it too: the commission has been seen to have done it's job, just about, but it carefully avoided upsetting anyone in particular. That is hardly the way to make changes that will really improve the situation for the future.

In particular, the commission's report does recognize that the electrical pylons were in a poor state and only capable of half their designed capacity - for which Unelco was sanctioned - yet, the conclusions of the report fail attribute blame on Unelco for the resultant, prolonged, up to seven days, power outages in Tenerife.

Only the politicians themselves seem to be satisfied with the outcome and, as one would expect here, they also seem to have spent time arguing over what to call the storm, some claiming it was really a hurricane of force 3 or 4. (Like we care?)

Central to the issue, of course, is whether the storm should be termed "de fuerza mayor" - what English speaking insurers, even atheist ones, call an "Act of God" - because from that depends who (if anyone) will pay out to those affected.

Specifically too, the estimated damages reported earlier and mentioned in the reports at Wikipedia (English | Spanish), were all well in excess of $300 million (228 million euros at today's rate). Nevertheless, the commission has now valued the global damages caused by Delta at merely 41.7 million euros ($54.8 million).

As to the future, the new president of Unelco, José María Plans, says that energy distribution has improved from the "critical" state it was in a year ago, but the archipelago continues to require new power stations to diversify risks.

We all hope that there will never be another storm of the like of Delta in the Canary Islands, but merely hoping would be foolish in the extreme. Unfortunately, from these conclusions, Canary Islanders are still left merely hoping that what the authorities might do to prepare, if it does occur, is enough and in time.

La ´comisión Delta´ confirma la debilidad del sistema eléctrico
La ’comisión Delta’ reparte las culpas entre Endesa y toda la Administración
Hace un año el Delta "nos destrozó"
El día en que el Delta rugió (With photos)
Tormenta Tropical Delta
Tropical Storm Delta (2005)
Días de crisis

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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According to the final report from the meteorologists, reported in La Opinion, what we have been calling Tropical Storm Delta, was actually an extratropical cyclone and the damage caused by the phenomenon was the fruit of the orography of the archipelago.


Tropical Storm Delta near peak intensity, November 24, 2005. NASA image by Mark Gray and Bill Ridgway, Goddard Space Flight Center
We're glad to have that one cleared up, aren't we? But, unless you're an expert in these things, they may as well have said it was caused by extraterrestrials. In other words, you may be wondering, as I was, what all those big words really mean, so I've done my best to make sense of this news.

The final technical report from the National Meteorological Institute (INM) on Delta concluded that it was, on its arrival in the Canary Islands, an extratropical cyclone and not a tropical storm as had been said at the beginning. They also say that the destruction caused in some parts of Tenerife and which left some areas without electricity for a week and without water for some days, was caused more by the physical geography of the island than by the weather system itself.

Researchers from the National Meteorological Institute presented their report last Tuesday at the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna, Tenerife during a conference called Profundizando en Delta: un estudio avanzado. (Getting to the bottom of Delta: an advanced study). During this chat, INM technicians made scientific data available for the first time, covering this phenomenon that wipped the island last November 29th.

The information had been collated two or three months earlier and, despite its importance, had not been made public and was presented in a discrete conference.

During the presentation, Francisco Martín León, of INM, explained that at the beginning Delta was a tropical storm, with all the characteristics of one and was generated in subtropical waters. Between November 23 and 27, "it behaved like a tropical storm", explained Martín León and added that on November 28th at 12:00 hours, the National Huricane Center in Miami [the center with jurisdiction over this type of phenomenon in the Atlantic] catalogued the phenomenon as a tropical storm. (Note: I expect this was also when they gave it a name.)

After that moment, a number of atmospheric circumstances came about together, which caused Delta to arrive in the Canary Islands and, the form in which it did, which was that it became an extratropical cyclone.

For a tropical storm to travel, it normally needs water with a warm temperature of 27 degrees centigrade. One of the first curiosities of Delta was that it developed over waters with temperatures inferior to 25 degrees and even water at 21 degrees. Also, Delta had a singular movement and was conducted over a course that brought it to Canary Islands latitudes and, it was precisely this course that prevented it from dying out in mid-Atlantic, as is usual with tropical storms.


Path of Delta
Later, Delta evolved with a warm frontal system and with this injection of dry air, it began to displace rapidly, where before that, it had been moving slowly and erratically. On November 28th, Tropical Storm Delta began its transition to extratropical and lost its symmetry (another of the characteristics of tropical storms).

On arrival in the Canary Islands on the night of November 28th, it had already converted into an extratropical cyclone.

Martín León assured, in turn, in response to questions, that a similar phenomenon to Delta had been produced in the Canary Islands in 1975 and that, with these two events, it is fitting to think that this is something which could be repeated in the islands.


Orography and Wind

Juan José Bustos, also from INM, explained that the grave destruction that was produced in the Canary Islands, especially on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma, had more relation with the physical geography of the terrain that with the weather system. That is, that in less mountainous islands, there were few problems reported. He also explained that the largest gusts of wind were on the leeward side (On or toward the side to which the wind is blowing. The side sheltered from the wind.), as in the case of the Valle de Güímar.

Javier Calvo explained that the various methods that exist at the moment to predict this type of phenomenon do not have the capacity to predict exactly what time they will arrive or the force of the winds they will bring with them.


Reference and Definitions

Orography: the physical geography of mountains and mountain ranges.

Cyclone: An atmospheric system characterized by the rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low-pressure center, usually accompanied by stormy, often destructive weather. Cyclones circulate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

Extratropical Cyclone: The extratropical, or middle-latitude, cyclone originates as a wave, or perturbation, in the polar front separating the cold polar easterly winds from the warmer prevailing winds farther toward the equator.

Tropical cyclones, formed over warm tropical oceans, are not associated with fronts, as are the middle-latitude wave cyclones, nor are they as large as the latter. A tropical cyclone that has matured to a severe intensity is called a hurricane when it occurs in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones usually move toward the west with the flow of the trade winds during their formative stages.

To be fair, the information on Tropical Storm Delta (2005) at Wikipedia (in English) reflects this information. The Spanish version contains more information, but, curiously, doesn't mention the extratropical word.

Report of the preliminary evaluation of the front, which explains how the lie of the land added to or caused the turbulence, causing the level of damages (in Spanish, but with ever so pretty pictures, diagrams and graphs.)

El informe final del Meteorológico dice que ´Delta´ fue un ciclón extratropical


Conclusions and Takaways

So, it was bigger than an ordinary cyclone and nearly a hurricane then. There is a certain amount of satisfaction (we aren't simply whining or making a mountain out of a molehill), in being able to say that we really were beaten up by a whole bunch of thugs and not just one slightly threatening 7 stone weakling.

My completely non-technical logic still wishes to conclude from this information that the reason the storm didn't go in the direction it should have gone, is because of the cooling of the Gulf Stream. If that is so and, in turn, that is related to Global Warming, then, I think we have to wake up to the fact that not only is this already likely to repeat, it may be even more likely to repeat in future.

Given that the geography isn't going to change and these things are most likely to move clockwise, means that the eastern side of Tenerife is going to continue to be on the leeward side in any repeat events. Putting pylons and overhead cables back along the motorway there, rather than putting cables underground, now we know, would, in my opinion, be an act of gross negligence and stupidity.

The two bold paragraphs above were my added emphasis. Is the reason that this was not made more widely public nor in a timely fashion, indeed because of the prediction that this is something that could repeat? That would require action to change methodologies and ensure infrastructures are built to deal with the events. The authorities may also fear that it might scare tourists, although, I would counter that the unknown / unprepared is far more frightening.

But far be it for me to make a conjecture. (Sarcasm.)

Labels: Tenerife Weather, Tropical Storm Delta, Weather

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Maybe it seems a little perverse to browse pictures of a disaster or to keep going on about the Tropical Storm Delta that hit these islands at the end of November last year, but it happened. One cannot deny that.

The picture (left) shows one of eight of the large trees on the Avenida de Anaga in the capital, Santa Cruz, that were downed by the winds, which in some places reached 200 kmh (124 mph).

It is just one of hundreds of pictures in this special, compiled by ElDia, which shows, in both words and images, the damage caused by the storm.

Will it serve to remind and ensure that the relevant authorities are prepared in case such a storm should happen here again? Ah, that is the $64K question!

Special Tropical Storm Delta

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Marisa Tejedor, councillor for Industry, Commerce and New Technology in the Canary Islands Government proposes that her department should sanction electricity company, Endesa-Unelco, with a fine of 450,000 Euros for grave infractions, after detecting the high level of deterioration of the supply to the south of Tenerife after the island was hit by Tropical Storm Delta in November 2005, leaving many without power for seven days.

Although not related to the loss of power, further tests have also shown that the part of the 66 kilowatt supply between Las Caletilla and Granadilla in Tenerife, shows "a high grade of erosion and its charge capacity is reduced to almost half."

Ms Tejedor also underlined that some improvement projects have been held up because of problems within the company and others, for administrative reasons and delays in gaining permissions from the Government and Town Halls. Proposed modifications of the "Canarian Electric Law" aim to reduce such bureaucratic processes.

Industria propondrá al Gobierno canario que sancione con 450.000 euros a Unelco por infracción grave

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Today, the Island Corporation of Tenerife has released information to town halls on the grants established by the various administrative departments to cover the costs of repairing the damages caused by Tropical Storm Delta that hit the island in November.

Help is for repairs to roads, water and other public buildings and services, with the State proving up to 50 percent of the finance, local government 45 percent and 5 percent from the town hall.

There are also provisions to give financial aid for the repair of damages to homes and businesses, which have been previously reported to the corresponding town hall, plus help for entities and professionals in making claims to UNELCO for cuts in electricity supplies. The last items on the agenda were comments on aid destined for private individuals.

El Cabildo de Tenerife informa a los ayuntamientos sobre las subvenciones por la tormenta 'Delta'

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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The dramatic visitation of Tropical Storm Delta at the end of November was just the latest in a growing number of extreme weather incidents that meteorologists are convinced are pointing the way to climate change in the Canary Islands.

For once, I'd say that the meteorologists are right!

Tropical forecast

Labels: Tenerife Weather, Tropical Storm Delta, Weather

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Tropical Storm Delta left a trail of destruction, devastation and recrimination in its wake – and also highlighted the desperate need for an energy rethink in Tenerife. Or, as one influential business leader put it: “Delta has shown up the obsolescence of Tenerife’s electricity supply infrastructure. The entire grid requires drastic improvements. If not, the development this island has enjoyed over the past decade – the greatest in the whole of the archipelago – will be stopped dead in its tracks.”

Delta: impact and aftermath

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Canary Islands electricity company, UNELCO, promised electricity for the entire island by Friday, after several towers and four of the five main lines of the network were taken out by Tropical Storm Delta last Monday.

This morning, however, I hear that some parts of Güimar, didn't get to see the light until last night, Sunday and, most of that is being supplied is by makeshift generators. UNELCO have already said that full repairs will take 4-6 months.

Be warned, they are now telling us not to use too much power and, especially not in peak hours (remember, the holidays are coming: the island's busiest time of year for tourism, not to mention all those Christmas lights and extra dinners to cook), because the system is only patched together and won't be able to take it.

Based on past experience, that means a pattern of regular cuts are very likely.

We envisage a surge in sales of solar panels and, above all, batteries. If you are going to be in Tenerife for the holidays, bring both and torches, lanterns, candles, matches ... You can be sure there will soon be shortages of these items in stores.

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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The Spanish government yesterday approved an aid package for the Canary Islands, where thousands of houses were damaged earlier this week by Tropical Storm Delta. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the Cabinet had approved the aid package, including tax and social security breaks as well as reconstruction grants. She did not give a total value for the package, or give any details on damage estimates. *

Fernandez de la Vega plans to visit the islands later today.

Spain approves aid package for Canary Islands

* We have heard a round figure of 300 million euros (circa. £202 m / $351 m) being used in the media as an estimate of the total damages, but just how accurate that figure might be, we cannot say.

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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The government is to speed up compensation payments to those affected by the tropical storm which hit the Canary Islands. A Royal decree was issued to ensure residents will get faster payments for any damage done to their property. The cash will also go to some 50,000 farmers whose crops and machinery were wrecked when the storm, called Delta, lashed the islands on Monday.

Compensation for those left in dark by storm

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Residents left in the dark since the tropical storm Delta hit the Canary Islands protested in the street. Miguel Zerolo, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, said the electricity company Unelco-Endesa had no right to leave people without power for four days since the storm. There were street protests in La Laguna, where residents banged pots and pans in a traditional Spanish 'cacerolada'. The company has promised power will be restored by Friday across the islands.

Protests as Canary Island black-outs go on

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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The director general of Unelco, José María Plans, said yesterday that the electricity network in Tenerife will not be completely repaired and restored to the condition it was in before Tropical Storm Delta passed, for four to six months.

Parts of the network have been totally destroyed and four of the five main lines have been affected. At the moment, they are not working on the pylons that have been brought down by the winds, but, as a provisional measure, will install an underground line alongside the main north-south highway to restore power as rapidly as possible to the 77,000 subscribers in Tenerife still without electricity.

A shipment of telephone equipment was flown in on a Hercules military transport plane, plus two further charter planes have brought 136 people and 120 tons of equipment are expected from the mainland to facilitate the repairs.

Speaking on whether the electricity company had a "Plan B" to deal with these eventualities, Plans underlined that "it is not normal to have winds of 240 kilometers per hour, measured in the Avenue of Anaga". He also said that in his 32 years experience, he has never seen pylons double over before. Nor have we!

La reparación definitiva de la red eléctrica en Tenerife tardará entre 4 y 6 meses, porque está "completamente destrozada"

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Victor Ruiz in south east Gran Canaria has created a roundup of coverage of Tropical Storm Delta at his blog Linotipo from among various Canarian blogs.

English speakers will require the assistance of something like Google Language Tools to read the rest of the Spanish language lineup, however, it is interesting to read the different perspectives and experiences - and great dry humour comments like "today, the Canaries work off batteries" - from various points around the islands, not just those related to Delta, but as a view on island life in general.

Many posts also have photos and they don't need translating!

Canary Islands newspaper, Canarias7, said on their blog Atarecos that they felt the effects of Delta on their servers, showing them how little we were all prepared for such an event. An unprecedented 24,000 visitors and their Java virtual machine decided it was not disposed to serve that many requests at once.

I have to say that I am honoured to the point of extreme humbleness that Secret Tenerife has been included, let alone listed first, as the only English language blog amongst the Canarian blogosphere. WOW! Does this mean I have "arrived"? :)

Tormenta Delta en la blogosfera canaria

Tags: delta

Labels: Tropical Storm Delta

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Tropical storm, winter storm, hurricane ... the distinctions do not seem all that important when what one sees looks like a hurricane whipped through.

Mudslides, missing roofs and trees, often hundreds of years old, have been uprooted all over the islands. Among many others, eight of the large trees on Santa Cruz', Avenida de Anaga, alongside the the capital's port have been uprooted and in the Plaza Weyler, the gardens have been totally destroyed. A sculpture by famous artist, the late Cesar Manrique, has been reduced to scrap metal in Lanzarote. Meanwhile, in Gran Canaria, God has lost his finger. The famous landmark stood for millions of years and had been the symbol of the area.


Before and after images, courtesy Gran Canaria Info

"The famous Dedo de Dios, or Finger of God, at Puerto de Las Nieves on Gran Canaria has collapsed due to strong winds." More »

Whilst it is sad that such things have been destroyed in one frenzied night and day, TV reports show carnage, but victims mostly dismissive of their material damages and grateful they had no lost lives to lament. Indeed, only one man died, on the Canary Islands themselves, as a direct result of the storm. The 63 year old was blown off his ladder while attempting to repair his roof in Fuerteventura.

Over 200,000 people in Santa Cruz and La Laguna in Tenerife spent a second night last night without power after pylons alongside Tenerife's main north-south highway were blown down. Local authorities are having equipment flown in from the mainland and expect to reconnect 40% of those without power today, 90% by tomorrow, Thursday and to have 100% power restored by Friday.

Over forty percent of the mobile telephone network was affected, as well as thousands of fixed phone lines cut off. We were without internet connection for a while and one of our TV stations was missing, probably due to a downed antenna.

The most lasting damage from the storm will be to the agricultural sector, which has suffered wholesale destruction of many crops throughout the archipelago.

Here in the north west of Tenerife, locally, at least, we were protected from the winds - which reached 200 kmh (124 mph) at Izaña, close to Mount Teide - by the Los Gigantes cliffs. Local damage is minor and restricted to small items that have been displaced. However, the roof of a new industrial building near the town of Buenavista del Norte was ripped off and in neighbouring Los Silos, the wall of a banana plantation fell on a vehicle belonging to the Local Police.

In Icod de los Viños a row of houses had their roofs blown off, but the storm merely dampened and did not wash out the day's traditional festivities for San Andres.

Experts are unable to offer conclusive proof, but locals are convinced that global warming is responsible for the abnormal weather phenomenon. Those I have spoken to hope, but do not believe, that it will be an isolated incident.

The islands have now been taken off alert and schools and work are back to normal today in almost all but the most affected areas of Santa Cruz and La Laguna.

Related reports / photos:
Delta force in the Canaries
Tropical storm Delta sweeps Canaries
Tropical storm Delta ravages Canaries
BBC | Tropical storm batters Canaries
Canary Islands struggle to restore power after storm
Delta causes havoc in Canaries
Life begins to return to normal on Canary Islands

Tags: delta, tropical storm, canary islands, tenerife

Labels: Tenerife Weather, Tropical Storm Delta, Weather

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Six African would-be immigrants drowned off the coast of Spain's Canary Islands on Monday as storm waves swept their makeshift boat, officials said. The accident was the most serious consequence of Tropical Storm Delta which became a winter storm as it neared Africa on Monday, but brought strong winds to the islands. Rescue services had difficulty reaching the wrecked boat, which carried around 50 people, because of fierce weather conditions.

Six immigrants drown in Canary Island storm waves

Labels: Tenerife Weather, Tropical Storm Delta, Weather

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(Click for larger image)
Latest satellite weather image, courtesy Canarian Astrophisics Institute (IAC)The regional government declared a state of alert in the Canary Islands as Tropical Storm Delta (the 25th of the season) headed towards the archipelago.

The fishing fleet was ordered to remain on dry land and citizens were advised to avoid travelling, especially on roads close to the coasts and, to take extra precaution on mountain and narrow roads where there is a heightened risk of falling trees or rocks.

Schools were closed Monday throughout the Canary Islands and several inter-island flights were cancelled, with others suffering delays as the first winds of Atlantic tropical storm Delta hit the archipelago.

Keen to allay fears among the population who might be concerned about the risk of damage on a par with that caused by Wilma or Katrina, simply because this is a named storm, local TV presenters interviewed meteorologists on air via telephone link.

Presenter: "What is the difference between this and previous storms we've seen in the archipelago?"

Meteorologist: "The Hurricane Center in Miami gave it a name."

OK, just so we know!

Meteorologists predicted wind speeds of between 75 and 100 kmh in the uplands of Tenerife and La Palma, possibly reaching 150 kmh or more on the summit of Mount Teide. Winds have continued to buffet Secret Tenerife's "headquarters" throughout Monday, but, so far, with less force than we have seen on previous occasions.

Electricity supplies have been interrupted more than once, but we have decided to follow official advice to the letter, "avoid unnecessary trips". Lock up, wrap up and sit it out, is usually the best way to deal with these short lived weather fronts.

Related links / sources:
Delta force in the Canaries
Storm Delta nears Canary islands, Madeira
Tourists brace for new storm
Canaries close schools as tropical storm Delta approaches
Situación de alerta ante los fuertes vientos y lluvias, preludio de la tormenta 'Delta'
National Hurricane Center

Tags: delta, tropical storm, canary islands, tenerife

Labels: Tenerife Weather, Tropical Storm Delta, Weather

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Tenerife photo gallery