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This work analyses a storm that occurred 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 discussed. The main goal of this work is to establish an approximate reconstruction of this historical event.
This work analyses a storm that occurred 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 discussed. The main goal of this work is to establish an approximate reconstruction of this historical event.
This work analyses a storm that occurred 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 discussed. The main goal of this work is to establish an approximate reconstruction of this historical event.
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 JOS BETHENCOURT-GONZLEZ AND PEDRO DORTA-ANTEQUERA The authors 2010 Geograska Annaler: Series A 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 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- 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 330 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM 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 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 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 331 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM JOS BETHENCOURT-GONZLEZ AND PEDRO DORTA-ANTEQUERA The authors 2010 Geograska Annaler: Series A 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 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 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 332 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM 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 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. 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 333 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM JOS BETHENCOURT-GONZLEZ AND PEDRO DORTA-ANTEQUERA The authors 2010 Geograska Annaler: Series A 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 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 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 334 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM 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 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. 2053.GEOA9203.book Page 335 Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:14 PM JOS BETHENCOURT-GONZLEZ AND PEDRO DORTA-ANTEQUERA The authors 2010 Geograska Annaler: Series A 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 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. 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