At the time of the passage of the “Nelson” depression across the country, these two phenomena were recorded in photographs and videos broadcast in the media, but without there being any certainty that they would actually be classified as a tornado.

The IPMA states that “the tornado started over the water of the Tagus River estuary, already east of the Vasco da Gama Bridge”, between 2:21 pm and 2:24 pm, with no known associated destruction effects, so it is not possible to estimate its intensity.”

“With an advection of 23 meters/second (83 km/h) in the east-northeast direction, the supercell (SC) crossed the entire south of the city of Lisbon, between the Belém area and the eastern part of the city, where it was located at 14:17 UTC, already close to the Vasco da Gama Bridge”, says the IPMA, adding that 10 minutes later it was still perfectly visible.

The institute adds that towards the end of the afternoon of the same day, in the Barlavento Algarve, “an episode of strong wind was reported in Benaciate, parish of São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the municipality of Silves”, confirming that “the occurrence was associated with a tornado.”

“At 17:07 it was still over the sea, being located in the vicinity of Lagoa (municipality of Lagoa) ten minutes later. With an advection of 22.5 m/s (81 km/h) in the east-northeast direction, at 17:27 it was located close to the place where the occurrence was reported, and ten minutes later it was already across the A2 motorway”, explains IPMA.

According to the institute, this tornado destroyed two prefabricated houses, damaged other homes, and caused large trees to fall that damaged vehicles.

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