Portugal Safety and Security report Wednesday 9th November 2022
Good morning – The 9th November is the date for this year’s Seismic risk awareness exercise which will take place at exactly 1109 hrs.
This has been widely publicised for a very good reason, that is because know what action to take in an earthquake can save your life and those of your family. We never know when a major earthquake may occour the, last major one being in 1967 when a 7.9 major earthquake caused loss of life and extensive damage in the Algarve.
Never adopt the attitude “it will never happen to me”. Even though major earthquakes are infrequent, depending on where the epicentre is, the magnitude and depth, all determine the extent of damage and potential loss of life. So “A Terra Treme” and practicing Drop Cover Hold, especially if you have young children and those with disabilities, is very important. Details here; https://www.aterratreme.pt/
Later this morning safe Communities will be undertaking the exercise and we will publish the photos on social media afterwards.
With some very wet weather around at present a reminder of safety on the road especially motorcyclists. Always wear protective gear, helmet, tough protective clothing and reflective material. Always ride with the lights on, to be seen; do not ride between queues or moving vehicles; – move away from blind spots of vehicles and adjust your speed to the state of the road and ensure a safe distance.
We also ask everyone to regularly check the weather warnings issued by the IPMA. These can change from time to time and what is issued at the start of the day may well change in accordance with changing weather forecasts. Yesterday he Alcântara area, in Lisbon, was affected by “a low intensity tornado”, which caused damage to the roof of the Food Bank Against Hunger, official sources confirmed.
Patrícia Marques, meteorologist on duty at the IPMA, explained that it was “a supercell, which passed with a lot of activity and made a rotational movement that will have resulted in the image similar to a funnel”.
The “extreme wind phenomenon” was detected by IPMA radar data and was “short-lived in time”. The meteorologist said that the country is being crossed “by a cold frontal surface with a lot of activity”, which is making the Lisbon-Castelo Branco route, on the way to Spain. It is therefore important to regularly check the weather forecasts and warnings in place when planning your outdoor activities.
Civil Protection recorded 182 occurrences in mainland Portugal, between 00:00 and 15:00 yesterday, due to heavy rain and wind, with the districts of Lisbon and Aveiro being the most affected. These were essentially due to flooding on public roads and in urban areas with fallen trees, not counting those referring to the city of Lisbon”.
At around 2:30 pm, in a first assessment, Paulo Santos said he had recorded 106 occurrences, between 00:00 and 13:00 today, across the continental territory, due to heavy rain.The Civil Protection commander also said, at the time, that the districts most affected were those of Porto and Aveiro, mainly due to flooding in urban roads and falling trees.
“There was also a record of an occurrence of an extreme wind phenomenon, in the middle of the morning, around 10:50 am, in Marinha Grande [district of Leiria], which led to the fall of several trees, damage to 14 vehicles and a structure metal that flew and damaged high voltage lines, which led to the intervention of E-Redes”, said Paulo Santos.
With that have a good day and remember the “A Terra Treme” exercise at 1109 hrs!
News
October 2022 was the hottest month on record in Europe
October 2022 was the warmest month ever recorded in Europe, the European Union’s Earth Observation Program Copernicus said today, after a summer with record temperatures.
Average temperatures were “almost 2ºC above the reference period, 1991-2020”, the statement said.
The European service, which does not have comparable data before the period 1991-2020, had already announced that the summer of 2022 was the hottest on record (1.34ºC above normal).
“The serious consequences of climate change are evident and we need ambitious climate action at COP27 to ensure that emissions are reduced with the aim of stabilizing temperatures at a level close to the 1.5 degrees set by the Paris agreement”, said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU programme, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to try to stop global warming, is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, until the 18th.
According to Copernicus, “a heat wave led to record daily temperatures in western Europe and an unprecedented month of October in Austria, Switzerland and France, as well as in much of Italy and Spain.”
The European continent is the one that registers the fastest heating on the planet.
In the last 30 years, Europe has seen an increase in temperatures of more than double the global average, with an average warming of about +0.5 degrees Celsius (ºC) per decade, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and of Copernicus released a week ago.
In October, in some parts of the continent, the abnormal heat was added, as in summer, to the lack of rain. “The climate was drier than average in most of southern Europe and the Caucasus,” the statement said.
“Colder-than-average temperatures were recorded in Australia, far eastern Russia and parts of West Antarctica.”
Since the end of the 19th century, the Earth has warmed by almost 1.2°C, with about half of the increase occurring in the last 30 years. This year could be the fifth or sixth warmest on record, despite the impact since 2020 of the climate phenomenon “La niña” — a periodic and natural event in the Pacific, which cools the atmosphere, according to AFP.
DiCaprio’s film documentary about the Pedrógão Grande fire opens this week in Portugal
The documentary “From Devil’s Breath”, by Orlando Von Einsiedel, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, which deals with the great fire of Pedrógão Grande in 2017, will be shown this week in Portugal, revealed the US Cinemas.
According to the exhibitor, the film will be shown between Friday and Sunday in Lisbon, Loulé, Viseu, Funchal, Aveiro, Braga, Matosinhos and Coimbra, in a total of 24 sessions.
The tickets have “a symbolic cost of five euros and part of the revenue will be donated to a reforestation project to be selected by Casa do Impacto”, which is an innovation hub promoted by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, says the exhibitor.
“From Devil’s Breath” is a 40-minute documentary short film that tells the story of survivors of the great Pedrógão Grande fire in the summer of 2017, which killed 66 people.
The film’s production and co-production team brought together several people, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and journalists Tiago Carrasco and Catarina Fernandes Martins.
The recordings for the documentary took place in early 2020 and portray the story of Nádia Piazza, who lost her son and who was president of the Pedrógão Grande Fire Victims Association, one of the seriously injured, Vítor Neves, firefighter Sérgio Lourenço and by Sofia Carmo, who promotes reforestation projects in the affected area, journalist Tiago Carrasco told Lusa at the end of 2021.
The story of the survivors and what happened in Pedrógão Grande is crossed with the work and perspective of the English ecologist Thomas Crowther, with work in the restoration of ecosystems, who was also in Pedrógão Grande and who proposes solutions to the problem, he explained. According to the journalist, the production came to the idea of making the film in California (United States) or in Australia, but ended up choosing the case of Pedrógão Grande, “because it was so devastating, so concentrated and a tragedy with a huge loss of lives”.
“From Devil’s Breath”, which has already been shown at the Palm Springs Film Festival (USA) and at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), will be shown on Sunday, the 13th, on the North American channel MSNBC and is available on the Peacock streaming platform. The film is shown as part of the documentary series “Tipping Point”, by presenter Trevor Noah and production company Time Studios.
Orlando Von Einsiedel, who wrote “From Devil’s Breath”, won an Oscar for best documentary short in 2017 for the film “The White Helmets”, about volunteers from relief teams in the Syrian war.
According to exhibitor Cinemas NOS, the session of “From Devil’s Breath” at the Amoreiras cinema, on Friday, in Lisbon, will include a debate on climate change with deputy Miguel Costa Matos (PS), with co-producer Catarina Fernandes Martins. , Sofia Carmo, responsible for the reforestation program in Pedrógão Grande, and with moderation by Inês Sequeira, director of Casa do Impacto.