Ponta Delgada, Portugal, Sept. 26, 2025 (Lusa) - Storm Gabrielle hit the Azores in the last few hours as an extra-tropical depression, leaving a trail of more than 100 incidents and displacing eight people, and is now moving away from the archipelago.
The authorities predicted that Gabrielle would reach the Azores as a Category 1 hurricane - on a maximum scale of 5 - but, as it drew closer to the islands, it transitioned to a post-tropical depression. Although this did not prevent at least 103 incidents, fortunately, there were no injuries.
With a gradual improvement in the weather, the nine islands are returning to normality, but with effects in the Central and Western groups, where schools and non-essential public services are closed on Friday.
There are also constraints on maritime transport, with the company that provides passenger connections in the Central Group cancelling today's trips between the islands of Faial and Pico.
After activating its contingency plan on Thursday, which included the early cancellation of some flights, the airline SATA has cancelled connections between the islands of São Miguel and Terceira.
Despite having lost some of its initial hurricane characteristics, at a time when maximum wind gusts of 200 kilometres per hour were forecast, the storm was strongest in the Central Group, particularly on the islands of Faial, Graciosa, and Terceira.
During the early hours of this morning, the network of the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) recorded a maximum gust at low altitude of 154 kilometres per hour, while the maximum value at altitude was 185 kilometres on the island of Terceira.
These values were within the parameters of the red warning, the highest that had been issued for most of the Azorean islands.
As for the sea storms, which caused extensive damage to harbours and homes during Hurricane Lorenzo in 2019, this time the impact was less than the authorities initially predicted, with no damage to the archipelago's dozens of commercial and fishing harbours.
Damage to infrastructure and falling trees, which temporarily interrupted some roads, were the incidents that gave the civil protection teams the most work. However, the most complicated situation may have occurred at the air terminal on Graciosa Island, where part of the roof was lost due to the force of the wind.
Although the damage is still being assessed, the Regional Government of the Azores has acknowledged that the damage to the air terminal, which serves an island with around 4,100 inhabitants, could result in flight constraints to Graciosa, which SATA Air Açores provides.
The damage to the homes of the eight people who had to be relocated - four on the island of São Jorge, three on Faial, and one on Graciosa - is being assessed.
The IPMA, which has already lowered the weather warning levels in the Azores, predicts that, as Gabrielle progressively moves away from the Azores, there will be a gradual improvement in the weather, which is already being seen on most of the islands, including the Eastern Group (São Miguel and Santa Maria), where the storm did not cause any significant incidents.
The last major storm to hit the Azores was in 2019, when Category 2 Hurricane Lorenzo caused more than 255 incidents on several islands and €330 million in damage in the early hours of 2 October, forcing 53 people to relocate, but without causing any fatalities. At the time, the commercial harbour on the island of Flores was completely destroyed.
PC/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
