The extreme wind phenomenon that hit Peniche on Sunday, causing damage to houses, has been confirmed as being a tornado, with gusts between 90 and 120 kilometres per hour.

“It was effectively a tornado for two reasons: the type of damage that occurred in very limited areas, while on the other hand, we have a photograph that clearly shows the vortex over the water a kilometre or so southwest of the city of Peniche and which will have spread over the water before reaching land”, meteorologist Paulo Pinto, from IPMA, explained to Lusa agency.

Although there are no records, based on calculations from the Fujita and Torro climate scales and taking into account the type of damage caused, the meteorologist estimated that the tornado produced gusts “between 90 and 115 to 120 kilometres per hour”.

It occurred around 3pm and “wouldn’t have lasted much more than a minute, two minutes” throughout its cycle, he added.

According to IPMA, during the early hours and Sunday morning, the North and Center regions of Mainland Portugal were hit by a cold frontal surface associated with the Floriane depression.

Despite the nucleus being located in the southwest of Ireland, around two thousand kilometres from Portugal, the cold frontal surface moved “quite south and it was this activity that developed, which produced the Peniche tornado”, in the district of Leiria, he explained.

However, the existing weather conditions were not predictable and “were very early” for the occurrence of a tornado.

The tornado caused damage to 21 houses in the city of Peniche, without causing any victims or displacement, according to the local fire commander, José António Rodrigues.