The Storm of November 1826

THE STORM OF NOVEMBER 1826 IN THE CANARY ISLANDS: POSSIBLY A TROPICAL CYCLONE?
The authors 2010

Geograska Annaler: Series A 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
329
THE STORM OF NOVEMBER 1826 IN THE CANARY
ISLANDS: POSSIBLY A TROPICAL CYCLONE?
BY
JOS BETHENCOURT-GONZLEZ AND PEDRO DORTA-ANTEQUERA
Departamento de Geografia, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain
Bethencourt-Gonzlez, J. and Dorta-Antequera, P., 2010: The
Storm of November 1826 in the Canary Islands: possibly a trop-
ical cyclone? Geogr. Ann., 92 A (3): 329337.
ABSTRACT. This work analyses a storm that oc-
curred in the Canary Islands early in November
1826. Through a study based on historical climate
data, some of the adverse effects of the storm are
described and some of the possible causes are dis-
cussed. The main goal of this work is to establish an
approximate reconstruction of this historical event
which will allow us to compare it to a recent mete-
orological event that had a great impact on the ar-
chipelago: Tropical Storm Delta, in November
2005. Studying and reviewing the origin of the 1826
storm veries the hypothesis that extremely violent
perturbations have not only occurred in the Canar-
ies on other occasions, but that these past events
were also more intense and had more serious con-
sequences than Delta. Therefore, the idea that other
tropical perturbations have occurred in the region
of the Canary Islands before Delta is presented.
Key words: Canary Islands, climatic hazards, historical climate
data, storm, tropical cyclone
Introduction
In the last decade the Canary Archipelago has suf-
fered serious consequences from a series of adverse
meteorological phenomena, some of which have
caused deaths and a great deal of economic damage
(Dorta 2007). One of the most serious and recent
episodes was the Tropical Storm Delta which
passed through the Canaries on November 28 and
29, 2005. The media and some government of-
cials have blamed climate change for the event, ar-
guing that the Delta was the rst tropical storm to
affect the archipelago.
Although at rst glance the Delta storm ap-
peared to be a unique event, evidence has been un-
covered which shows that it was not the rst time
this kind of perturbation reached the islands. Very
recent research has uncovered similar episodes, in-
cluding a meteorological event, possibly of tropical
origin, which occurred in November 1826. The
event had terrible consequences for the Canaries
and the damage caused indicates that it was a trop-
ical cyclone. This is our hypothesis and the main
contribution of this article.
The following is an exhaustive analysis which
contributes to our understanding of the event itself
and provides insight into the possible causes,
which have never been explained. It also gives a
clear idea of the danger that these phenomena rep-
resent to the region.
Objectives and method
The main objectives of this work are, rst of all, to
carry out a historical climate study of the Canary Is-
lands in order to contribute to the historical recon-
struction of the extreme meteorological events in
this subtropical region of the eastern Atlantic. The
second is to determine the relative importance of
the 1826 storm among the long list of adverse me-
teorological phenomena that have affected the Ca-
naries and to offer arguments as to why it should be
classied as the worst meteorological disaster in
the history of the archipelago. The third objective
is to review some of the damage caused by this
storm. The nal objective is to try to reconstruct the
1826 event in order to verify the hypothesis that it
was most likely a tropical cyclone.
Currently, one of the main lines of research
within general studies about global warming is the
analysis of all kinds of proxy data in order to re-
construct the climatic past as a way to verify the
transformations that take place in the future. Un-
fortunately, there is very little meteorological in-
formation available for the Canary Archipelago
(or, for that matter, a large part of the subtropical
eastern Atlantic) that dates before the second half
of the twentieth century, making it difcult to
2053.GEOA9203.book Page 329 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM
The authors 2010
330
study tendencies related to climate change. De-
spite the great importance of proxy data to this
eld of study, research based on historic climate
has only recently begun to be carried out and is still
very incomplete (Myer 1999, 2003; Romero and
Myer 2002; Marzol 2002, Garca et al. 2003;
Bethencourt et al. 2008).
That is why this work is based on historical
sources. Some of these sources have been briey
sketched in numerous bibliographic references, al-
though the information extracted is marginal be-
cause it comes from publications that are not spe-
cically concerned with climatology. Other sourc-
es come from two of the main archives of the island
of Tenerife: the Fondo Documental del Archivo
Municipal de Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Ar-
chivo Histrico Provincial. This has allowed us to
work with original documents which contain a
great deal of information about what happened,
where it happened and how it happened.
Background
Events characterized by very intense or torrential
precipitation are not new to the Canary Islands.
There are numerous references to disasters directly
related to rain and, to a lesser degree, wind. Some
of the most signicant occurred in December 1645,
January 1713, October 1722, November 1922 and
January 1957. Each of these events affected various
sectors of the island and caused a great deal of dam-
age as well as numerous deaths. However, accord-
ing to our information, none of these disasters had
repercussions as serious as those caused by the
1826 storm. But despite the magnitude of the storm
it has been difcult to study from a climatic per-
spective because it occurred so long ago and sourc-
es which mention it only dedicate a few paragraphs
to the event (Quirantes et al. 1993), since the pub-
lications are generally historical (Barroso et al.
1983; Hernndez 196869). In addition, these pub-
lications present some contradictions regarding the
damage caused by the storm. Therefore, we feel
that the event has never been adequately researched
and that this work supposes an advance in the thor-
ough understanding of this phenomenon.
The reason that this historical event is once again
of interest is due to Tropical Storm Delta, which
passed through the Canaries in November 2005.
Despite the fact that this storm occurred very re-
cently, there are already numerous publications
that refer to it from diverse points of view, which
speaks of its great signicance from both a mete-
orological and social perspective (Martn 2006;
Vernire et al. 2006; lvarez and Vernire 2007;
Arozena et al. 2008).
Within these many publications there are as-
sumptions that Delta was the rst tropical phenom-
enon of this nature to reach these geographic co-
ordinates. Thus we found it necessary to search for
past events of similar characteristics in order to
verify if it really was a unique occurrence. Several
months after Delta passed through the archipelago,
the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Meteorologa (AE-
MET, formerly the Instituto Nacional de Meteor-
ologa, INM) indicated in a long technical note that
according to its meteorological database a similar
event had occurred in December 1975, named Sub-
tropical Storm 2 or ST_2 by the National Hurri-
cane Center (NHC) of the United States (Martn
2006). Therefore, it has already been revealed that
Delta was not unique. Furthermore, our review of
the bibliography and analysis of the data has led us
to conclude that it is very probable that in addition
to not being the rst tropical perturbation to affect
the archipelago, Delta was not even the most in-
tense. As was the case with Delta, most of the dam-
age caused by ST_2 was due to high winds. How-
ever, the latter storm brought winds that gusted at
speeds greater than those of Delta in some points
of the island, including the meteorological station
of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (37 m/s in 2005 and 45
m/s in 1975). Moreover, our work shows that there
were even stronger winds in November 1826 and
that this storm also far surpassed the amount of
precipitation in the later events. The resonance that
this line of research has had in the scientic com-
munity is remarkable. Some authors have already
published relevant research based on laborious ar-
chive work which has brought to light the existence
of tropical cyclones which were unknown until
now, called paleocyclones by some (Garca-
Herrera et al. 2005a; 2005b, and Vaquero et al.
2008). The present work will continue this new
line of research.
Principal damages
According to all of the publications and documents
dealing either directly or indirectly with climatic
disasters in the Canaries, the 1826 storm appears to
have caused the greatest loss of life and general
damage, at least in the past two centuries. This
statement, shared by other authors (Quirantes et al.
1993), is based on a long list of documented refer-
ences that has still not yet been exhaustively ana-
The authors 2010
331
lysed. There is certainly more information to be ex-
plored in different archives. Earlier publications on
disastrous meteorological events clearly show the
extraordinary strength and signicance of the 1826
storm. We know of a great deal of information con-
tained in municipal records, ecclesiastical docu-
ments, the press and, more recently, the publica-
tions cited earlier. All of these sources indicate that
on the island of Tenerife (focus of the most studies
and the island that provides the most information
on the storm, probably because it was the most pop-
ulated at that time) the very strong winds and pre-
cipitation of the storm caused nothing short of a
disaster on every level.
Unlike other disasters in the Canaries, the No-
vember 1826 storm was a far-reaching phenome-
non. It clearly and unquestionably affected every
one of the islands, although certain areas were es-
pecially punished, either due to the vulnerability of
concentrations of population or to the sharp differ-
ences between high and low grounds which led to
strong torrents and/or increased wind speed, both
of which caused severe damage. La Orotava valley
and a large part of north and north-western Tenerife
were the most heavily affected areas because of a
combination of dense population and a topography
that favoured torrents and strong winds. (In 1826
La Orotava was the largest city in northern Ten-
erife. Unfortunately, on June 2, 1841 there was a
re in the archive and more than likely an important
source for the study of this storm was lost.) The mi-
nor references in the few articles that have been
published to date concentrate on these areas.
Judging from the damage caused by the wind,
we estimate that the maximum gusts were greater
than at least 3242 m/s at sea level and even strong-
er in areas where the topography or altitude fa-
voured increased speeds, just as occurred during
Delta. This would explain the damage that was re-
ported to walls and houses, as well as the severe
damage to forests and fruit plantations on the is-
lands, with thousands of trees uprooted.
thousands of pine trees fell in Anocheza, which
was one of the most famous and heavily popu-
lated mountains on the island, and the belfry of
the San Juan hermitage was blown off.
(Municipal Libraty of Santa Cruz
de Tenerife, documental
Inform of Gimar, 1826)
Such damage could only have been caused by ex-
tremely strong winds. By comparing the number
of trees affected during each of the storms, it
seems evident that the 1826 storm was stronger
than the Delta. The tremendous speed of the winds
was also noted at sea, as indicated by numerous
descriptions:
Six ships were lost in the port of these coasts
they were torn apart in the streams and their car-
goes were lost.
(Municipal Libraty of Santa Cruz
de Tenerife, documental Inform of
Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1826)
However, it was the rain that wreaked the most hav-
oc and caused the majority of the deaths. Given that
many areas of the Canaries have experienced pre-
cipitation that surpassed 250 mm in 24 hours
throughout the last few decades, we can assume
that the quantity of rain that fell on November 7 and
8, 1826, although obviously difcult to estimate,
could have approached that level in many sectors,
with torrential rain (more than 100 mm/24 hours)
falling in large areas. Moreover, by thoroughly an-
alysing the accounts of the 1826 storm, we have
come to the conclusion that some areas probably,
over the two days, received more than 500 mm of
precipitation, as occurred in January 1957 in the
eastern part of the island of La Palma (Marzol
1988). The force of the torrents created alluvial de-
posits up to two metres high within the city limits
of Puerto de La Cruz, the main port of the northern
coast of Tenerife.
The economic damage should be the topic of
another article because it is such a long list that in-
cludes all kinds of infrastructure, businesses, ag-
riculture and livestock throughout the archipela-
go. For example, we have counted 603 houses in
Tenerife that were destroyed (demolished,
wrecked) and many more that suffered damag-
es. In addition, numerous bridges, military con-
structions, convents and churches, public build-
ings, etc. were also affected. The following is an
extract of the letter sent by Lieutenant Colonel
Isidro Uriarte, Governor and Commanding Gen-
eral of the Province of the Canary Islands to all of
town mayors with the purpose of assessing the
damage caused by the storm:
In order for Your Highness to completely under-
stand the misfortunes, shipwrecks, oods and
considerable losses of rural goods and the deso-
lation and misery in which the majority of the
population have been left by this horrible storm
The authors 2010
332
The means used to control census data, the antiq-
uity of the original sources and the poor postal sys-
tem in the Canaries at the beginning of the nine-
teenth century make it impossible to know the pre-
cise number of deaths. Some sources speak of an
innite number of dead or oating cadavers,
some of which were found days later near the coast,
which gives an idea of how powerfully the torrents
of water surged through most of the ravines on the
island. Although its possible that the exact number
will be revised in later research, Table 1, which out-
lines the approximate number of victims, is provid-
ed with information extracted from an analysis of
the Archivo Municipal de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The total number of deaths reached 298 on the is-
land of Tenerife alone. The devastating effects of
the storm are illustrated by the fact that some Eng-
lish companies created a fund to aid the poor is-
landers (Berthelot 1980). This provoked the sus-
picion of the Spanish crown, which refused to grant
aid or suspend taxation as the island authorities re-
quested. The fairly large maritime trafc between
Great Britain and the Canaries at the time, indicate
that we could probably nd additional information
on this storm in British archives.
Possible causes
Until now, the possible meteorological cause of
the 1826 storm has not been thoroughly investi-
gated. Therefore, in the following paragraphs we
will outline a possible origin for the event. Our ar-
gument is based on similarities with other events
and also with the adverse effects and characteris-
tics of the storm described in the documentation
that we have analysed.
Similarities with other tropical storms
As mentioned earlier, the scientic community has
proposed two hypotheses to explain the appearance
of Delta. The rst proposes that the origin of the
storm is related to climate change, in which case
this would be the rst event of this kind in the re-
gion. The second hypothesis suggests that while
this kind of phenomenon is possible in the region,
they are quite rare, occurring only after long inter-
vals. Proving the latter would require all kinds of
data to be studied and veried in order to nd sim-
ilar situations in the past. Despite the fact that a
large part of the press and most governing ofcials,
as well as heavily invested businesses, are more in-
clined to believe the rst hypothesis, expert opinion
has been more cautious, although climate change
has not been discarded. The rst research projects,
carried out a few months after the storm by the
former Instituto Nacional de Meteorologa (today
known as the Agencia Estatal de Meteorologa),
discovered that in December 1975 a phenomenon
very similar to the Delta occurred (ST_2) and that
this fact makes it less likely that climate change
was responsible for causing it. The 1975 storm
generated maximum wind gusts (45 m/s) in Santa
Cruz de Tenerife greater than those caused by Delta
Table 1. Deaths caused in Tenerife by the 1826 storm
Town Deaths Orientation
counted floating
Arico 4 3 Southeast
Gmar 7 -
Arafo 1 -
Candelaria 8 -
Santa Cruz de Tenerife 9 - Centre*
La Laguna 9 -
Pueto de la Cruz 32 71 North and Northwest
Villa de La Orotava 118 -
Realejos 39 -
San Jun de la Rambla 12 -
La Guancha 52 -
Garachico - various
Icod 6 -
Los Silos - 4
Santa rsula 1 -
Total of Tenerife 298 78
*Actual metropolitan area
The authors 2010
333
in November 2005 (37 m/s). Along these lines, the
appearance of Delta and Hurricane Vince in the vi-
cinity of the Canaries in the fall of 2005, and Hur-
ricane Gordon the year after, have led most to ac-
cept the possibility that extreme meteorological
events originating in the tropics could affect the re-
gion of the islands. (Although albeit at a higher lat-
itude, Gordon was a tropical cyclone formed in the
middle of the Atlantic in September 2006 and had
a trajectory similar to that of Vince, in that it came
noticeably close to the coasts of the Iberian Penin-
sula and even caused considerable damage in Gali-
cia as an extratropical cyclone).
Since there are no numeric data measuring me-
teorological elements during the 1826 event, it is
only possible to make an estimate. Even so, we be-
lieve that the proxy data we have are very useful
when considered in combination with the meteor-
ological background of similar storms. Highly un-
stable tropical phenomena in the northern Atlantic
have been widely studied, especially throughout
the areas where they most commonly appear, the
Caribbean Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, with in-
formation dating back to the sixteenth century
(Garca-Herrera et al. 2005). In addition, recent
publications on hurricanes that occurred in the pre-
instrumental period allow us to compare the situa-
tion in 1826 with other episodes by using methods
such as historical archive analysis to detect similar
events. Such is the case of the magnicent CLI-
WOC research project (http://www.knmi.nl/cli-
woc/index.htm; Garca-Herrera et al. 2005b).
Thanks to this research we know that there was
a hurricane in October 1842 which affected
Fig. 1. The trajectories of tropical phenomena that have been detected to date in the vicinity of the Canary Islands.
* The trajectories of ST_2, Vince and Delta have been estimated by the National Hurricane Center. The trajectory for the hurricane of
1842 was deduced by using the logbooks of several ships (see Vaquero et al. 2008).
Source: Beven 2005; Martin 2006; Vaquero et al. 2008; Own elaboration.
The authors 2010
334
Madeira and the southeast Iberian Peninsula
whose characteristics and trajectory were very
similar to those of Vince (Vaquero et al. 2008).
This conrms that these kinds of perturbations
pass through this region (Fig. 1). It is also proves
that they have been doing so far before climate
change became an issue.
In this vein, we found the November 1826 storm.
Our hypothesis links Delta, ST_2, Vince and Octo-
ber 1842. The appearance of Delta requires a revi-
sion of some of the basic aspects of climate study
in the Canaries, because it proves that tropical phe-
nomena are not only possible in this region but also
that can arrive with extremely destructive force.
There are many similarities between Delta, Vince,
ST_2, October 1842 and November 1826 (Table 2).
One example is that they all developed in autumn
between October 8 and December 15. Scientic lit-
erature indicates that Delta and ST_2 may have
been caused by high altitude troughs, which pene-
trate subtropical latitudes more easily during that
time of the year, combined with cyclones or tropi-
cal storms to the west of the Canaries. These
troughs link up with the remnants of the afore-
mentioned tropical depressions (Martn 2006) and
reactivate them, causing them to veer eastward in-
stead of following their habitual trajectory toward
America. These events show that this kind of ex-
treme meteorological phenomenon has occurred in
the past, allowing us to rule out climate change as
the exclusive cause.
The argument based on effects and
characteristics
According to the information we have today, the
damage caused by the 1826 storm was more serious
than that caused by any other extreme meteorologi-
cal phenomenon that has occurred in the Canaries.
The characteristics that we will outline in this section
indicate that this was an exceptionally severe storm.
The data extracted from the archives and the ex-
tensive destruction caused on every side of each is-
land, allows us to eliminate local convective
storms. Those local phenomena occur repeatedly
on the islands due to western currents containing
pockets of cold air, producing very intense precip-
itation in a short period of time in concentrated ar-
eas, causing a great deal of damage, mostly due to
ash oods. There are numerous examples: De-
cember 1999 in eastern La Gomera (Horcajada et
al. 2000); March 2002 in the city of Santa Cruz de
Tenerife (Marzol 2002); November 2001 in Taburi-
ente National Park on the island of La Palma; or the
aforementioned January 1957, also in La Palma.
Fronts that sweep over the islands usually leave
general precipitation, although not as intense as
that of November 1826.
Storm winds originate from various sources and
directions. Storms from the third or fourth quadrant
with wind gusts greater than 25 m/s are common on
the coasts. In addition, some isobaric congurations
which give rise to advections of Saharan air generate
mostly strong, gusty katabatic winds on the northern
and western slopes of the islands. These can cause
serious damages, although their top speeds rarely
surpass 25 m/s. The references regarding 1826 speak
of very strong and extremely intense winds particu-
larly from the SE, SW and NW, which are similar to
the directions of the wind produced by Delta. Wind
with changing directions appears as a characteristic
of the hurricanes described in the references found in
the Archivo General de Indias for the pre-instrumen-
tal time period (Garca-Herrera et al. 2005a). Final-
ly, it should be noted that in 1826 the strongest wind
gusts in the majority of the stations in the Canaries
generally coincide with those measured during the
two tropical storms on record, December 1975 and
November 2005. Therefore we can assume that the
extraordinary wind speeds in 1826 could only have
been caused by a tropical storm or a tropical cyclone.
One element that clearly showed the presence of
Table 2. The tropical phenomena that have been detected to date in the vicinity of the Canary Is-
lands
Name Category Year Month
? Tropical Cyclone ? 1826 November
? Tropical Cyclone 1842 October
ST_2 Tropical Storm 1975 December
Vince Tropical Cyclone 2005 October
Delta Tropical Storm 2005 November
Source: Beven, 2005; Martn, 2006; Vaquero et al. 2008
Own elaboration
The authors 2010
335
Delta was a sharp drop in pressure, a process that
was especially evident on the island of La Palma,
where it dropped to 987.9 hPa at 8:00 PM on No-
vember 28 (Fig. 2), although the lowest measure-
ment during the perturbation was recorded on the
24th with 980 hPa (Beven 2005). Storms that reach
the archipelago are never accompanied by a drop
in pressure as fast and sharp as that which occurred
during Delta. However, some sources describing
the 1826 storm indicate that the drop in pressure
was identical to that which occurred during the
Delta and during the 1842 hurricane. This was a
drop of approximately 20 hPa in three hours,
which is unthinkable for storms that normally
reach the Canaries.
the barometer marked 28.532 inches at 1011 at
night, the wind shifted to the NW and by mid-
night it was like a hurricane, and in one hour all
of the ravines overowed with rain. (We assume
the data in English inches due the average data
of the station). At 1 AM the barometer had
dropped to 27.87 inches and the wind was no
longer gusting, but continuous (trees uprooted
and buildings damaged). At 7 in the morning on
November 7, the barometer rose 0.1 inches
(27.97). The wind and water started to calm
down. At 10 the barometer rose a few thou-
sandths, although the rain remained strong until
night. Between 7 and 8 the barometer marked
28.42 and everything was calm.
This is a report from the Ayuntamiento de La La-
guna to Isidoro Uriarte, Governor and Command-
ing General of the province of the Canary Islands.
The pressures measured at this site are low consid-
ering that it is located at about 500 m a.s.l. 28.532
inches are approximately 966.2 hPa.and 27.87,
947.2 hPa. Although these data could contain mis-
takes for any number of reasons for instance, the
barometer not being correctly calibrated or the ab-
sence of an ofcial meteorological station what is
important is the great reduction, almost 20 hPa. in
only two hours.
Finally, some people living in the Canaries in
that time described the storm literally as a hurri-
cane. Perhaps the most relevant of the 1826 ac-
counts was that of the French naturalist Sabino
Berthelot who was in Tenerife during the event and
whose testimony is particularly important given his
Fig. 2. Evolution of the pressure in the La Palma Airport (40 m a.s.l.) between the 27th and 30th November 2005.
The authors 2010
336
training and experience in regions where tropical
cyclones are frequent. Sabino Berthelot (1794
1880) was one of the most important French bota-
nists of the nineteenth century. He produced many
scientic publications and in his youth he visited
the French colonies in the Caribbean various times
while travelling on merchant ships and with the
French navy. Although we remain cautious when
interpreting his words, his travels and experiences
in America give some scientic validity to his ob-
servations of the 1826 storm, such as the following:
Between those disturbing announcements I per-
ceived a phenomenon which I had witnessed in
America: it was the Antillas hurricane which ar-
rived with its warning signs (Berthelot 1980).
This information leads us to believe that the No-
vember 1826 storm, given its violence, could be
categorized as a tropical cyclone, although it could
have reached the islands as an extratropical cy-
clone, like Delta or ST_2. In that time period trop-
ical cyclones in the northern Atlantic were named
for the saints day, so the event that occurred on No-
vember 7, 1826 could have been named the Hurri-
cane (or storm) San Florencio.
Conclusions and comments
With the information we have, we can point to No-
vember 7 and 8, 1826 as a meteorological mile-
stone in the Canary Islands because of the exten-
sion and damage caused by the event. Even with the
caution necessary when working with non-
quantitative information, the descriptions of the
damage found in various documentary sources
make plain that this was an unusually intense me-
teorological phenomenon. Based on the proxy da-
ta, we estimate that the amount of rain and the wind
speed were possibly the highest registered in the ar-
chipelago for at least the last two centuries.
The study of the passage of Tropical Storm Delta
and some of the research done in its aftermath in-
dicate that, in addition to Vince, similar phenomena
occurred in at least two other occasions (October
1842 and ST_2 in December 1975); this, along with
the estimated values of 1826, lead us to believe that
1826 was a tropical cyclone.
These events cannot be explained as a conse-
quence of global warming, since it has been dem-
onstrated that it was not the rst time this kind of
phenomenon reached the islands. In this sense, re-
search employing the historical climatology meth-
od based on proxy data is very useful to reconstruct
these natural disasters. If we know our climates
past we will know the threats that we are exposed
to and global warming may increase those risks.
It is important to note that the reconstruction of
causes and damages are not statistical estimates but
rather real impacts on a territory with extraordinary
irregularity in precipitation patterns and the densest
population in the European Union. The high pop-
ulation density, which has grown markedly in the
past 2530 years, is particularly disturbing when
one reads about the damage caused by the 1826
storm to a population that was innitely less ex-
posed than that of today. When we consider not
only Delta, but also ST_2 and 1826, it becomes
quite clear that another intense tropical event could
reach the islands. This is a severe threat to the Ca-
narian population and the 12 million tourists that
visit the islands every year.
Finally, we must point out that this work is only
the start of a line of research that requires arduous
work in archive and eld in order to understand,
with the greatest depth possible, not only the 1826
storm but also other disastrous meteorological
events that have occurred in the Canary Islands.
Jos Bethencourt-Gonzlez and Pedro Dorta-
Antequera, Departamento de Geograa, Universi-
dad de La Laguna, 38071, La Laguna, Spain
E-mail: pdorta@ull.es
References
lvarez, L. and Vernire, R., 2007: Evaluacin preliminar del
modelo MM5 frente a experimentos numricos en terreno
complejo, para la isla de Tenerife, durante la Tormenta Trop-
ical Delta, II Parte: Turbulencia inducida a capas bajas, aso-
ciadas con Ondas de Montaa. RAM, 40.
Arozena, M.E., Dorta, P., Panareda, J.M. and Beltrn, E., 2008:
El efecto de los temporales de viento en la laurisilva de Anaga
(Tenerife, Islas Canarias). La tormenta Delta de noviembre de
2005. Scripta Nova, vol. XII, art. 267.
Barroso, N., Calero, E. and Hernndez, H., 1983: La catstrofe
de 1826, Revista local, 1 Aula de Publicaciones del Ay-
untamiento del Puerto de La Cruz.
Berthelot, S., 1980: Primera Estancia en Tenerife (18201830).
Aula de Cultura del Excelentsimo Cabildo Insular de Ten-
erife e Instituto de Estudios Canarios: Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Bethencourt, J.F, Dorta, P. and Criado, C., 2008: El temporal de
1826: reconstruccin de sus causas y sus consecuencias en la
isla de Tenerife: in Cambio climtico regional y sus impactos,
Asociacin Espaola de Climatologa, 4556: Tarragona.
Beven, J., 2005: Tropical cyclone report Tropical Storm Delta,
National Hurricane Center.
Dorta, P., 2007: Catlogo de riesgos climticos en Canarias: ame-
nazas y vulnerabilidad. Geographicalia, 51: 133160.
Garca, R. Macas, A. Gallego, D. Hernndez, E. Gimeno, L. and
Ribera, P., 2003: Reconstruction of the precipitation in the
Canary Islands for the period 15951836. Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society 84, 10371039. Doi:
10.1175/BAMS84-8-1037.
The authors 2010
337
Garca-Herrera, R., Gimeno, L., Ribera, P. and Hernndez, E.,
2005a: New records of Atlantic hurricanes from Spanish doc-
umentary sources. Journal of Geophysical Research, 110:
D03109, doi:10.1029/2004JD005272.
Garca-Herrera, R., Knnen, G., Wheeler, D., Prieto, M.R.,
Jones, P. and Koek, F., 2005b: A climatological database for
the worlds oceans 17501854. Climatic Change, 73: 112.
Hernndez, J.C., 196869: Efectos del aluvin de 1826 en G-
mar. Revista de Historia Canaria, 157164: 222231.
Horcajada, T., Simancas, M. and Dorta, P., 2000: La constatacin
y validacin de los mapas de riesgo de avenidas en pequeas
cuencas hidrogrficas mediante SIG. Propuesta metodolgica
y aplicacin a la ordenacin de territorio. Boletn de la Aso-
ciacin de Gegrafos Espaoles, 30: 135153.
Martn, F. (ed.), 2006: Estudio de la tormenta tropical Delta
y su transicin extratropical: Efectos meteorolgicos en Ca-
narias (27 a 29 de noviembre de 2005). Instituto Nacional de
Meteorologa.
Marzol, M.V., 1988: La lluvia, un recurso natural para Canarias.
Servicio de Publicaciones de la Caja de Ahorros de Canarias,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Marzol, M.V., 2002: Lluvias e inundaciones en la ciudad de Santa
Cruz de Tenerife. In: El agua y el clima. Publicaciones de la
Asociacin Espaola de Climatologa (AEC): 461470.
Myer, P., 1999: Un siglo de temporales en la prensa de Gran Ca-
naria. Vegueta, 4: 267282.
Myer, P., 2003: Lluvias e inundaciones en la ciudad de Las Pal-
mas de Gran Canaria (18691999). Universidad de Las Pal-
mas de Gran Canaria y Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Quirantes, F., Fernndez-Pello, L., Romero, C. and Yanes, A.,
1993: Los aluviones histricos en Canarias. In: Nuevos
procesos territoriales, Universidad de Sevilla: 611615.
Romero, L. and Myer, P., 2002: Episodios de sequa en Gran Ca-
naria en el siglo XVII: anlisis de las rogativas como mtodo
de reconstruccin climtica. In El agua y el clima. Publica-
ciones de la Asociacin Espaola de Climatologa: 533542.
Vaquero, J.M., Garca-Herrera, R., Weeler, M., Chenoweth, M.
and Mock, C.J. 2008: A historical analog of 2005 Hurricane
Vince. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 89
(2): DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-89-2-191.
Vernire, R., lvarez, L. and Gracia, P., 2006: Evaluacin pre-
liminar del modelo MM5 frente a experimentos numricos en
terreno complejo, para la isla de Tenerife, durante la Tor-
menta Tropical Delta. I Parte: Activacin del esquema Trop-
ical Cyclone Bogussing y valoracin de la Capa Lmite Plan-
etaria (PBL). RAM, 38.
Fondo Documental del Archivo Municipal de Santa Cruz de
Tenerife
Fondo Documental del Archivo Histrico Provincial de Santa
Cruz de Tenerife.
Manuscript received July 2009 revised and accepted Oct. 2009

The Storm of November 1826

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

The Storm of November 1826

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

THE STORM OF NOVEMBER 1826 IN THE CANARY ISLANDS: POSSIBLY A TROPICAL CYCLONE?

The authors 2010

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen