HISTORICAL

The dairy of the Meteorological Observatory of El Retiro recorded an event that shocked Spain on May 12th, 1886

May 12th of 1886 started mild and humid, a bit tiring, it was a typical spring day. At midday it started to appear clouds and the sky took a look unstable: rains arrived on the evening, but there wasn’t any thunder yet, at least yet.

The sky was tempestuos from six in the afternoon. From 18.25 to 18.50 pm it flashed and thundered weakly while downpour fell copiously, sometimes mixed with hail and often not very abundant either.

“At the beginning, clouds came from the S and SW, and the weathervane pointed to the SE, then to the E and NE and, for a long time, during the storm, to the N. The wind went against the movement of the clouds, of slow progress, so far they went in the opposite direction. But at 18.50 weathervane was inclined to NW, then W, and shortly after, before 19.00 in the evening it pointed to SW and, as the wind turns, it varies its direction, out of time it increases in intensity and concludes by whirling about, from 19.01 to 19.06 mainly, with devastating fury and very rarely, even for brief moments, warned in Madrid: without comparison certainly in the last twenty years”.

This is the description of the Observatory’s meteorologist about a common phenomenon in other latitudes, but never seen on our own, that by entering Carabanchel, toured in less that five minutes about twelve or fifteen miles to leave through Las Ventas, devastating everything the tornado found on its zigzag path, of a few thousand meters wide. Any way, its massive fury respected everything that was out of its sinister itinerary.

From Carabanchel, the hurricane moved towards Puente de Toledo turned its direction in the Round of the same name, teared an area of the Plaza de Atocha and the Botanical Garden, respecting the Pinacoteca del Prado. But the Observatory and the nearby School of Civil Engineers were shaked. The tornado also destroyed part of the Carrera de San Jerónimo and crossed El Retiro, to the road of Aragon, where the phenomenon rised and lost all its power when entering the atmosphere.

It passed by with dizzying speed, destroyed hundreds of trees, many of them uprooted, many buildings collapsed and the cover of some others flew through the air. It was shattered Casa de Vacas, heavy train wagons were lifted into the air and the tracks were moved from their anchorages. The victims were numerous: in the Imperial laundry, in which two hundred women were working, perished sixteen and twenty more were seriously damaged; in the asylum of Drumen street, that at that moment was giving dinner to one hundred and fifty poverty-stricken, eighteen people resulted casualty and more than forty people were seriously wounded. There were many other casualties, but the newspapers of the time do not agree on the number, which undoubtedly must have been high.

“At 20.00 a new electrical storm happened all of a sudden from SW and W, and and intense rain fell with moderate wind... At nine o'clock at night, everything seems to be ended, but, at 21.30 pm, some other fearful clouds, which extend at a glance across the sky, appear from SW and W, and between 22 pm and 22.05 pm they dismissed another violent downpour, with a more important electrical appliance than the previous one and at 23.00 hours it drizzled gently, completely restored calm at the atmosphere, so deeply troubled for six hours”.

The Mayor Gardener of El Retiro, Romualdo Aguado, informed the Observatory that they had been destroyed 126 elms, 40 pines and seven acacias of between one and two metres in diameter, and it had been necessary to boot 267 trees of different varieties, as they were completely damaged; after the disaster more than 442 trees of between half a metre and one in diameter, that were affected by the hurricane, were lifted and strengthened.

There is no documentation of a similar phenomenon in Madrid, either before or after this incident; but there was a reason of alert because of the strange atmospheric behavior that accompanied the wedding of Prince Felipe and Leticia: we all remember the abundant and unusual rain that day on Madrid.