Portugal's North Wind Blows Good and Bad

The branches on the tops of eucalyptus trees act as windsocks, indicating high wind speeds and direction. When the Nortada blows, they bend at right angles.

(Photo from Pixabay)

---

I used all my strength, this morning, to pull my front door open, against the force of the Nortada, the northerly or northwesterly wind which has been blowing in Portugal the past several days.

The branches on the tops of the tallest trees -- fire-feeding eucalyptuses -- were the most striking aspect of my panorama in the country's interior, in the Beiras' Oliveira do Hospital, stretching out sometimes as far as right angles.

The recurring howl of the Nortada was the only sound, the twittering and trilling of the swallows absent. An occasional eagle rode the wind.

The Nortada blows along the western coast of mainland Portugal, reaching its peak intensity in the afternoon and characteristic of the hottest months of the year, between May and September, according to IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera).

The North Wind happens because of the difference in temperature and the sea. When the inland areas get hotter, the air rises and creates a kind of empty space. Then, the cooler air from the ocean rushes in to fill that space, according to Aware Weather, climacam.

IPMA explains:

"This wind is essentially the result of the location and configuration of the Azores Anticyclone (northwest of the Iberian Peninsula) and the thermal depression of the Iberian Peninsula. It is associated with the sea breeze effect, resulting from the temperature difference between the sea and land, and the Coriolis effect, . . . which shifts the current to the right, producing an east-to-west current. This moves surface waters away from the coast and forces the rise of deeper, colder, nutrient-rich waters, offsetting the offshore movement of surface waters."

The Nortada signifies different things to people, depending on their location.

Windsurfers and kite-surfers seek places where the North Wind blows for its strength as well as its cooling effect, according to Aware Weather. Praia do Guincho, near Lisbon, in Cascais Municipality, is an example.

From the south, Miguel Esteves Cardoso, columnist at Público (July 15, 2016), offered his view:

"Here in Sotovento (leeward), there is an occasional warm wind blowing from the interior of the Algarve and Alentejo. It starts to be felt around sunset, when the temperature drops below 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). This wind arrives, and the temperature, already at nightfall, by another 3 or 4 degrees. The sensation is strange -- usually the more light, the hotter, but wonderful, creating warm nights when summer is in the wind."

Aside from temperature, the Nortada also is influenced by mountain ranges, such as the Serra da Estrela and the Serra do Caramulo, both of which compose my home's panorama.

Beach season on the coast is fire season inland. Sadly, the Nortada is often the strong wind which the bombeiros (firefighters) encounter in battles with wildfires.

---

Praia do Guincho, near Lisbon, in Cascais Municipality (Photo by Alves Gaspar)

---

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating;

There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

-- John Ruskin, borrowed from the epigraph of Estudo Climatológico da Nortada da Costa Oeste da Península Ibérica (2015), Francisco Miguel Gaspar de Chaves' master's degree dissertation at Escola Naval