Monday, March 1, 2010

Xynthia storm violently hits French Atlantic coast

Sailing boats out of the La Rochelle harbor

Saturday, Xynthia touched Portugal and Spain before crossing the French coast.

In Britanny and much of the Atlantic coast, these winds, coupled with very strong tidal factors, have led to a rise in sea level over a meter.

Links :

Xynthia formed "when the cold winds of altitude, the famous jet streams very powerful, came into contact with a warm air mass situated in low layer" in the middle of the Atlantic at about 30 ° north latitude. The large temperature difference between the two air masses generated the "deepening" of a huge whirlpool, or depression, which was then evacuated to the northeast.
"These winter storms are relatively common but most of the time they are born farther north off Iceland and the British Isles and do not reach such intensity," says Patrick Galois, Meteo France Engineer.

The violence of Xynthia comes from the fact that it has been formed much farther south than usual and has mobilized a large amount of warm air.

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