Our Portuguese friends

Keep your heads down Hippo and Simao! Storm Leslie looks like a beast take care.

Hi earwig, survived here intact, luckily being 60 miles inland from figueira helps. The portuguese weather warnings made for interesting reading yesterday; red for the district (county) I'm in for wind, red for the sea state (14 meter waves) and amber for rain. All in all, an interesting evening and overnight.

Good to hear you are safe Hippo, storms are getting worse year on year.

Hi seadog, Simao is safe too. Storms may well be getting worse. Generally I think the weather forecasting is getting a bit more reliable which helps with preparation for such events.

Glad to hear all well. Agree with the Dog regarding storms. At least in Portugal you all build with bricks and mortar unlike in the richest country in the world where half the population that live in Hurricane alley live in modular buildings and timber frames.

I'm not educated enough to understand why some houses are timber framed or portacabin type things in the US of A round hurricane land. Our house is built out of stone and soil, about 7 foot thick at the base and 2 foot at roof height. We should be safe for future storms but, you never know. Last year the forest fires caused a helluva lot of damage. Our house, land and animals escaped by about 500 yards.

Those fires are scary bastards. I was traveling with the missus and the van from mid Portugal downwards to Monchique about five years ago. There was a fire in Penacova burning for the whole month we were there, total devastation for miles, pretty well the length of the country.