A 64-metre (210-foot) research mast buckled during a storm on 7 October at the North Coast Aerosol Observatory near Marsa Matruh, Egypt, destroying 11 instruments and cutting off a key stream of climate data. At a public hearing in Alexandria on Monday, a review panel heard that the mast had been certified for winds of up to 90 km/h (56 mph), although the station had previously recorded a gust of 118 km/h (73 mph).
The storm’s peak gust reached 131 km/h (81 mph), the observatory’s highest reading in 12 years, according to its anemometer log presented at the hearing. The upper section fell into an empty service yard. Five staff members were inside the main building, and no injuries were reported.
A costly gap in the record
The station measures salt particles carried inland from the Mediterranean and how they affect cloud formation. Its instruments sample air at different heights, helping researchers compare sea-spray conditions with satellite observations and weather models. The mast’s upper sensors had been operating for six years.
Gavin Iyer, a climate scientist who coordinates the station’s data programme, told the panel that the lost measurements covered a period when seasonal winds begin to shift. “We can still use the lower sensors, but we have lost the vertical profile that makes these readings valuable,” he said. The team estimates it will take at least six weeks to restore a full set of measurements.
We designed for a typical season, not the tail we had already measured.
Marcela Šulc-Konečná, project engineer
Šulc-Konečná told the hearing that the mast’s wind limit came from a design calculation based on standard seasonal conditions. She said the team had not treated the station’s earlier 118 km/h gust as a required design threshold. The panel is examining how that figure was recorded and why it was not reflected in the final specification.
Repairs before winter readings
The observatory’s operator put the loss at E£3.8 million (about €70,000), including replacement sensors and the cost of rebuilding the mast. The instruments were scattered across the yard, but the panel said the review had found no evidence that the storm damaged nearby buildings or equipment.
The panel has ordered a pause on work at two smaller masts in the same research programme while engineers check their wind limits. Medard Pokorný, the panel’s chair, said the review would assess the design, installation and maintenance records before deciding whether other stations need changes. An interim report is due on 2 November.
The hearing did not attribute the storm to climate change. Researchers told the panel that one unusually strong event cannot establish a trend, and that the station’s long-term measurements are among the tools needed to study changing coastal weather. The panel will reconvene on 16 November, when it expects to hear whether replacement instruments can be installed before winter monitoring begins.
