Nationwide we HAUL it ALL!  Services start at $9.95, ANY SIZE… 7 days a week year round.

Faster than Amazon, Hauling items within Hours!  Learn More about SERVICES

Haultail is Nationwide from Courier to Big and Bulky Rapid Delivery. Learn More about LOCATIONS

  • Download now!

Hurricane Lorenzo strikes Portugal’s Azores on way to Ireland

Azores

Lorenzo – the most northerly and most easterly large hurricane ever to form over the Atlantic Ocean – is now headed straight for Ireland.

It has weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, but is expected to be a strong extratropical cyclone when it approaches Ireland tomorrow evening, according to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC).

Meteorologists were warning this week that large swells generated by Hurricane Lorenzo would continue to spread across much of the North Atlantic basin during the next few days, producing life threatening swells and rip currents.

The hurricane reached Portugal’s Azores islands in the early hours of this morning, causing power outages and knocking down trees across the mid-Atlantic archipelago, authorities said.

Packing 150km/h winds, it was predicted likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions there, with only a slow weakening forecast over the next 48 hours, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

The nine islands of the Azores lie about 1,500km west of the Portuguese mainland and are home to nearly 250,000 people.

“This might be the strongest (hurricane) in the last 20 years,” said Carlos Neves, head of the Azores’ civil protection authority. “Although it shifted slightly in recent days to the west, it has affected us in a very aggressive way.”

The NHC said hurricane-force winds are currently battering the western Azores, while the archipelago’s central islands are experiencing tropical storm conditions.

The eye of Hurricane Lorenzo is near Flores island in the western Azores, but it is expected to move northeast quickly. Hurricane warnings are still in effect for the islands of Flores, Corvo, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa and Terceira.

Civil Protection said the winds won’t gain much more intensity and will eventually become weaker.

No one has been injured although there have been cases of trees falling down, Civil Protection said.

Neves said power cuts and mobile network problems were reported on Flores, one of the worst-hit islands.

“We hope to fix those issues in the next few days,” Neves said.

Lorenzo briefly became a Category 5 hurricane at the weekend, the strongest on record this far north and east in the Atlantic, but it has since been downgraded, striking the Azores as a Category 1.

Schools and non-emergency services will be closed across the Azores today, the regional government has said, with ports on some islands also shut. Authorities have closed numerous streets and roads.

NHC said Lorenzo will move away from the Azores on today and closer to Ireland tomorrow evening.

“Lorenzo is expected to be a strong extra-tropical cyclone when it approaches Ireland,” NHC added.

 

This article was originally published on rte

We updated our privacy policy as of February 24, 2020. Learn about our personal information collection practices here.