25/01/2013 00:00
TW
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Palma.—We've had a great Autumn and a relatively mild and dry start to Winter but it appears that Winter has finally hit.
With mainland Spain having spent the past week gripped by heavy snow and freak hurricane winds which have claimed the lives of over five people, the arctic front finally moved across the Balearics over Tuesday night bringing heavy rain, gale force winds and snow up in the mountains.

Temperatures fell to 2ºC in Campos yesterday with maximums across Majorca struggling to breach 11ºC or 12ºC.
The gale force winds peaked at 130 km/h in the Serra de Alfabia, 99 in the Port of Palma, 98 at Mahon airport, 98 at Cap Blanc, 98 in Porto Colom, 92 in Calvia and 85 kilometres per hour at the airport in Ibiza.

The areas punished the most by the gale force winds were Calvia, Palma, Llucmajor and, as always, Andratx.
According to the 112 emergency centre between 8pm on Tuesday and 8am yesterday morning, its staff fielded a total of 520 calls.
Nearly all of them wind related and it appeared that the gales reached their peak at between 8pm and 1am.
Evacuated
From trees blown across roads or on to buildings to tiles ripped off roofs and other dangerous objects whipped from balconies, the emergency services responded to 50 incidents in Majorca.

In Palma, a property near Arenal was evacuated after a giant pine tree was blown on to the building.
While in Minorca, needless to say the island was closed to shipping due to the high seas.
For the next few days, the weather is forecast to remain rough and wild. Today, skies will remain overcast and isolated showers, which at times may turn heavy and be accompanied by hail and storms, can be expected throughout the day.

The snow line will be 1'000 metres although the good news is that the temperature may climb slightly as a humid front comes in on the back of the arctic snap we've started the week with.

Westerly wind
The wind will be westerly and moderate turning north north easterly at mid day with gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour, somewhat calmer than yesterday. So, for the meantime, make sure you keep warm and dry.