Cyclone Ana causes flight cancellations and fallen trees

The bad weather coincided with the end of the holiday period for Constitution Day and Immaculate Conception, so there were people needing to leave Majorca or get back to the island. In some cases, passengers were advised not to go to the airport as they wouldn't be able to get flights.

Airports on the mainland were affected. There were more than twenty cancellations at both Barcelona and Madrid airports. Vigo in the northwest was hit by snow, while the impact of Ana reached as far south as Seville.

Disruption continued today (Monday). Winds were reaching 140 kilometres per hour, and there were further flight cancellations, seven of them at Palma. At Barcelona airport over twenty flights were cancelled. Other airports affected included Madrid, Alicante, Bilbao and Malaga.

The wind was particularly strong along the east coast of the mainland, reaching Force Nine at times. Waves off the Balearics were up to five metres, and ports were closed because of sea and coastal conditions. The 112 line was busy taking calls, many of them because of fallen trees. In Palma, there were thirty incidents. Few parts of the island weren't affected, and the emergency services were called to Calvia (five incidents), Manacor (four), Andratx (three) and ones in Algaida, Deya, Escorca, Inca, Llucmajor, Marratxi, Pollensa, Sineu, Soller, Valldemossa and Vilafranca.

Conditions eased during the afternoon as the storm moved north. Rain in the Balearics was comparatively light. In areas of the mainland it was a different matter. In La Coruña in Galicia there were 219 litres per square metre.

Another front is due to affect the Balearics on Friday, but the weekend is expected to be settled.

For all the warnings about Cyclone Ana, it hasn't in truth been a weather event on anything like the scale of the hurricane of 2001 or the tornado of 2007. References to it having been "historic" were mainly because Aemet had not previously given a storm a name.