Airlines cancelled more than 200 flights in and out of Portugal on Wednesday, November 11, while schools and hundreds of supermarkets and businesses closed as Storm Charles made landfall, bringing heavy downpours and gale-force winds, Reuters reported from Lisbon.

Source: Reuters

Portugal's weather service IPMA said the eye of the storm had split in two over the Atlantic, diminishing its strength before it arrived via the southern Algarve region, and that it was expected to reach most of southern Portugal and the Lisbon region through late afternoon, Reuters reported. Euronews Portugal reported that the storm's track had shifted further south than first forecast, so the Alentejo coast and the Algarve were set to bear the brunt, with Lisbon hit less severely than feared.

Source: Euronews Portugal via MediaPavilion

The government had declared a state of alert for November 11, and IPMA issued red warnings for rain and wind in nine mainland districts — Castelo Branco, Leiria, Santarém, Lisboa, Portalegre, Setúbal, Évora, Beja and Faro — with gusts of around 120 km/h and up to 140 km/h in the most exposed places, Euronews Portugal reported. Long-distance coaches were halted, and rail and river ferry services were cut or restricted; Web Summit cancelled the second day of its Lisbon technology conference because of the storm.

Source: Euronews Portugal via MediaPavilion

538 incidents since midnight, airports hit hardest

Civil Protection Commander Mario Silvestre said authorities were maintaining high alert levels for flash floods, wind and rough seas after registering 538 incidents since midnight, Reuters reported. Storm Charles had already swept through the Madeira archipelago, causing some flooding and felling trees, before reaching the mainland.

Source: Reuters

The airport disruption was concentrated in the capital. More than 100 departing flights and more than 100 arriving services had been cancelled at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport by Wednesday morning, according to Portuguese newspaper Jornal Económico's review of airport operations, with flag carrier TAP Air Portugal among the hardest hit; an earlier Flightradar24 snapshot counted 184 cancellations at Lisbon, 17 at Porto and 12 at Faro. Cancellation counts are moving snapshots from Wednesday morning, not final daily totals, and airlines were still adjusting schedules as the storm crossed the Iberian Peninsula.

Source: Jornal Económico via RusTourismNews

Although the storm was less severe than initially expected, the government — criticised for its slow response to a succession of storms in January and February — had taken pre-emptive steps, putting all emergency services and army units on alert, cancelling classes, shutting non-essential public services and advising people to stay indoors, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters

No deaths or serious injuries from Storm Charles were reported in the sources reviewed on Wednesday. What happens next depends on the flood risk as the rain moves inland: civil protection kept flash-flood and rough-seas alerts in force through the day, and travellers flying to or from Lisbon, Porto, Faro or Madeira were advised to check their airline before leaving for the airport, as further cancellations remained possible while the storm crossed Iberia.

Source: Reuters; Euronews Portugal via MediaPavilion

The storm disruption came on the same day that hoax bomb alerts emptied schools across Italy in another Europe-wide disruption. Read: 300 schools evacuated in Italy after hoax bomb emails