Gusts of 80-140km/h were felt over two days last week in Almeria, Murcia, Valencia and Lerida, causing extensive - although often localised - damage.
Temperatures at the beginning of the week soared to daytime highs of 24°C with night temperatures of 6°C. But these levels fell by up to 10°C later in the week and the weather turned violent.
“The winds broke plastic tunnels, causing losses to just about every crop in Almeria, including capsicums, cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines and many more,” said Quique Oliver of exporter Agriveg.
Citrus and stonefruit plantations were also affected, causing fruit to fall from trees in the case of citrus and damaging fruitlets of early stonefruit varieties.
“Some places were not touched at all, but others suffered serious damage,” said Peter Davis of Davis (Louth) Ltd.
“For example, Vasilenco Exports in Almeria had all the plastic ripped off, lost their total crop of peppers and had to cancel exports to us for the rest of the season. They also lost a lot of oranges that were still on the trees,” he explained.
And Oliver reported that the damage is very localised. “Where a grower in one area may have lost most of a crop, his neighbour 10km away may have lost nothing.”
At this stage, Oliver said overall exports to the UK are not affected because of the localised nature of the damage.
But reports from the meteorological offices in Spain and France indicate that there is more unseasonable weather on the way. They are forecasting a cold snap at the end of March, with temperatures as low as -5°C at night, which could potentially be damaging to stonefruit trees and spring growth.
