2006 Atlantic Storm

Winter Storm Strikes Cascais

Around the 11th of February, 2006 a severe storm was developing in the eastern North Atlantic. The 0600Z NOAA surface analysis shows this developing hurricane force storm. The storm was slowly moving to the NE and deepening. This would not bring severe weather to the coast or Portugal and Cascais, but it would bring very large seas. At the time of this chart we were enjoying warm and calm conditions in the Cascais Marina. I used these days to check sails and do other chores on Sarah that were made easy by the pleasant weather.

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A few days later I went to the Nauticampo Expo at the Parque da Nacoes on the east side of Lisbon with Chris & Dora of Morild (my marina neighbors) and Martin (who was visiting from Sines). The Nauticampo is a boat and camping show at the large convention center in the Parque da Nacoes. At the show Dora got us an invite for a test sail of a Catana 43 catamaran that was berthed in Cascais.

During that test sail we could see the developing seas in the mouth of the Rio Tejo. The picture on the left shows the breaking seas just outside off Cascais. It is a little difficult to see in the thumbnail image on this page, but if you click on the picture you can view it at full 1280 x 1280 resolution.

The picture on the right shows the swell engulfing the new extension to the breakwater at the entrance to the Cascais Marina. This extension was completed over the winter to provide better protection for the Marina's mega-yacht (length > 40 meters) pontoon.

By the February 17 the storm center was heading into the Norwegian Sea and had deepened from 972 to 966 MB. The storm continued to bring strong (Force 7-8) winds to the coast of France and Iberia. The forecast was for continued strong winds and building seas in the Cascais area as the trough line moved into our area.
By this time the seas were more than 4 meters in height and breaking on the shoal just west of the marina breakwater. However the seas had so much energy that they carried all the way to the breakwater and then sent a wall of spray 5 - 10 meters above the top of the breakwater. The pictures on the right were taken on Feb 17, 2006 at high tide. Click on any of the pictures to view them at the full 1280 x 1280 resolution.

By February 18 a secondary low had developed west of the Bay of Biscay and was heading for the French coast pulling a frontal system along with it. The strong pressure gradient around this low re-inforced the strong on-shore winds we had been experiencing in Cascais. It also maintained the long fetch that had allowed the seas to continue to grow for nearly a week.

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By the time of high tide the waves were routinely throwing heavy spray over the top of the seawall into the marina.

By now the winds were blowing 20 - 30 kts and the breakers were crashing into the seawall.

In this picture the spray is drifting over the boats in the marina. Sarah behind the power boat in the far left side of the picture.

There is a road on the top of the sea wall. In the picture on the right and the one above you can see the water draining from the roadbed after a wave had struck.

That evening the winds topped out around 50 kts. I observed a gust to 48 kts. on my wind instrument. I never observed solid water breaking over the top of the sea wall as it was dark when the worst of the storm hit, but I can believe it happened. We had a lot of rain that night, but it was hard to tell the difference between the periodic rain showers and the spray coming from the waves hitting the sea wall.