Balearics has new storm tracking system

By Humphrey Carter POWER company GESA has recently installed a state-of-the-art lightning detector which can detect, locate and assess the damage of a lightning bolt with 15 minutes of it striking. The new system enables the power company to decide what action to take in the event of a bolt of lightning damaging any of its power installations and deploy engineers more or less immediately. Director of Operations for GESA-Endesa, Ernest Bonnin, said that all of their equipment is fitted with special systems to reduce the impact of a bolt of lightening, but storms can throw up diverse situations and sometimes lighting bolts are much more powerful than the norm, and can cause considerable damage and problems. “What is more, bolts of lightning do not always cause power cuts, I've seen the lights in a house near where a bolt struck suddenly come on,” he said. “On the other hand, I've seen how a bolt of lightning completely destroyed a sub-station at the Formentor Lighthouse,” he added. A strong Majorcan storm can discharge between 5'000 and 10'000 bolts of lightning and GESA has decided to install the specialist lightning detector equipment in order to reduce the possibilities of any surprises to both GESA and, more importantly, its clients. The new system can also track approaching storms and assess their development, enabling GESA to deploy its engineers to potential trouble spots before the storm has hit the Balearics. According to GESA's storm centre, 112 bolts of lightning struck Majorca during yesterday morning's storm which also dumped 25 litres of rain per square metre on Palma during its peak which lasted just 45 minutes from 3.15 am to 4am. The Balearics, in particular the north east of Majorca and Minorca remained of storm alert yesterday with the met office warning that heavy storms could dump as much as 40 litres of rain in just one hour in isolated areas. There was some inor flooding reported in the Port of Pollensa where 20 litres of rain fell per square metre, 18 litres were recorded in Lluc, and 14 and 6 litres in Sa Canova and Alfabia. The fire services reported no major problems, just a few fallen trees on road in Cala Major and the Playa de Palma. Conditions will improve slightly today but drivers are urged to be careful on the roads.