This Thursday, within the large area of low pressure located in the Atlantic, the storm Aline will form. This is the first to be named this season – which began on September 1 – within the Southwestern European Group, which includes the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
Aline has been “baptized” with that name by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), the equivalent of Aemet in the neighboring country. It is precisely through the south of Portugal that the storm of wind and rain (greater than these days) will penetrate towards Spain.
The Southwest Group is made up of the National Meteorological Services of Portugal, France (Météo-France), Belgium (RMI), Luxembourg (MeteoLux) and Spain. The storms to which the name is given are those that can produce a great impact on property and people.
According to Aemet, Aline, which inaugurates “our spiral of storms”, will arrive this Thursday. In principle, it is expected to be a small but deep storm, and “it will cause a storm of intense winds, rain and rough seas that will affect a good part of the Peninsula.”
The measure of naming a storm helps the population to be more attentive to warnings and speeds up their dissemination
Not all storms have the ‘honor’ of receiving a name. According to Aemet, naming storms with great impact makes communication more effective in the event of an adverse wind episode, which also tends to be associated with adverse coastal phenomena and, on many occasions, also problems related to rain and snow. ..as was the case with Filomena in January 2021.
This system of naming storms with great impact had already been successfully implemented for two seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17) in the European West Group (composed of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands) before also being extended to the Southwest Group during the 2017-18 season.
Get attention
Surveys in the United Kingdom and Ireland showed that people were more attentive to severe weather warnings and safety recommendations when the threat of strong wind was clearly identified and associated with the name of the storm.
According to the Aemet on its website, a storm will be named, in general, when conditions are expected that give rise to the issuance of orange or red level wind warnings associated with said storm in one of the five countries of the Southwest Group and which are expected to have a great impact in several areas.
Specifically in the case of Spain, these are maximum gusts exceeding 90, 100 and 110 km/h depending on the areas. «This criterion may be relaxed in terms of the impact of the wind (the issuance of yellow wind warnings, maximum gusts greater than 70, 80 and 90 km/h, depending on the areas, will be sufficient for the appointment) when the impacts associated with the Precipitation may also be important (orange or red level warnings),” indicates the Spanish Agency’s portal.
The names of the high-impact storms planned for the current season are these, following their alphabetical order and alternating gender: Aline, Bernard, Celine, Domingos, Elisa, Frederico, Geraldine, Hipolito, Irene, Juan, Karlotta, Louis, Monica , Nelson, Olivia, Pierrick, Renata, Sancho, Tatiana, Vasco, Wilhelmina.
Rains and strong winds
Aline will leave this Thursday overcast skies and widespread rains that will sweep the peninsula from west to east. There will be very abundant rainfall in the western half and more than 40 liters per square meter may fall in a good part of southern Galicia, the central area, Extremadura, western Castilla-La Mancha, a good part of Andalusia and around the Pyrenees. The rains will also reach the Mediterranean in a weaker way.
The wind will be another factor that will accompany Aline, with strong or very strong gusts in large areas of the west and north of the peninsula. Temperatures will drop in much of the country. On Friday, according to Aemet, the unstable weather will continue although with less abundant rain than on Thursday. Temperatures will drop during the weekend, when there will be less rain, although they will persist in the northwest and parts of the Cantabrian Sea without ruling out some showers in parts of the western half.
#Aline #arrives #big #storm #season