Storm Charles causes floods and flight cancellations across southern Europe

By Paul Harrison, Orbis Weather Published November 13, 2026

Storm Charles shut much of Portugal for a day this week. It cancelled hundreds of flights and closed thousands of schools, and it flooded streets from Madeira to Lisbon before moving across southern Spain toward France and Italy. No deaths had been reported in Portugal or Spain as of Thursday, November 12. Portuguese officials said the storm was much weaker on the mainland than forecast.

The storm hit Madeira on Tuesday night, November 10, and reached mainland Portugal and southwestern Spain on Wednesday, November 11. Its rain then moved east. On Thursday, forecasters were tracking flooding risks in southern France and northern Italy.

Key facts

Portugal: a country on pause

Portugal closed all public and private schools on the mainland on Wednesday. The government also closed non-essential public services and urged people to work from home. The Associated Press, via Al Jazeera, said about 8,000 schools cancelled classes, which it called a first in living memory. Hundreds of supermarkets closed, and the Web Summit in Lisbon called off the day’s events.

The national weather service, IPMA, placed much of the mainland under red warnings, its highest level, for wind and rain. On Tuesday it set red wind warnings for Faro, Beja, Lisbon, Setúbal, Évora, Santarém, Leiria and Portalegre. It also set red rain warnings for six districts from Lisbon to Castelo Branco, according to a timeline compiled by Sábado.

The storm did not live up to those forecasts. At 10:07 a.m. on Wednesday, IPMA said the system had split into two low-pressure centers and was passing farther south than expected. IPMA lowered Beja, Lisbon and Setúbal from red to orange for wind at 9:06 a.m. Faro, in the Algarve, was the last district under red, until about 6 p.m.

IPMA had forecast gusts of about 75 mph (120 km/h), and up to 87 mph (140 km/h) in exposed places. The highest gust recorded on the mainland was 76 mph (123 km/h) at Fóia in the Algarve hills. In Lisbon, gusts reached 47 to 50 mph (75 to 80 km/h). IPMA meteorologist Patrícia Marques told Diário de Notícias that close to 3.1 inches (80 mm) of rain fell around Lisbon in six hours.

That rain was enough to cause flooding in the capital. Cars were partly submerged near Lisbon’s Oriente station and in Parque das Nações. Streets flooded in the low-lying part of Alverca, north of the city, and several roads were cut. Some homes flooded in Palmela and Silves, and a small number of residents were moved out as a precaution.

Portugal’s civil protection agency, ANEPC, logged 1,630 incidents from midnight to Wednesday evening, including 881 floods, its national commander Mário Silvestre said, as reported by Diário de Notícias. AccuWeather reported a higher figure of at least 2,500 incidents nationwide. The difference may reflect different cut-off times. Silvestre called the storm’s passage “much less serious than expected” (translated).

The power company E-Redes reported about 2,000 customers without electricity on Wednesday morning. By 7:30 p.m. only a few hundred remained without power.

Madeira took the first blow

Madeira, a Portuguese island in the Atlantic, had the storm’s worst conditions on Tuesday night. A red warning covered the island from 9 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday. Wind and rain figures differ between sources and stations:

• AccuWeather reported an 85 mph (137 km/h) gust in the Chão do Areeiro highlands.
• MetDesk, via Finwire, reported 84.5 mph (136 km/h) at Funchal airport.
• Correio da Manhã, citing the Lusa news agency, reported more than 9.4 inches (240 mm) of rain in six hours on high ground. MetDesk gave 14 inches (355 mm) in 12 hours without naming a location.

Madeira’s regional civil protection service counted 328 incidents by 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday, including 88 landslides and 50 fallen trees, Diário de Notícias reported. In Funchal, the São Roque stream overflowed and swept away a man in his late 70s. He was found alive and rescued, according to Reuters and Portuguese media. Funchal’s marina suffered what officials called significant damage.

Flights cut at Portugal’s main airports

The flight count grew through Wednesday. Reuters reported more than 200 cancellations on Wednesday morning, and AP reported more than 300 by the afternoon. RTP reported 360 cancellations by 11 a.m., citing ANA. By 6:30 p.m. the total was about 400 at Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Madeira, according to Lusa via Diário de Notícias.

Lisbon accounted for most of them. MetDesk put Lisbon’s cancellations at 183, about a third of normal daily traffic. Portuguese reports citing ANA gave a higher Lisbon figure, so the exact split between airports remains unclear.

Spain: red warnings, evacuations and a strike

In Spain, the storm’s arrival coincided with a general strike on Wednesday. That makes it hard to say how many cancellations the weather caused. Travel Extra reported more than 300 flights cancelled across Spain’s airports that day from the two causes combined. MetDesk reported 155 cancellations at Madrid-Barajas.

The state weather agency, AEMET, issued red rainfall warnings for northern Cáceres and southern Ávila, with up to 4.7 inches (120 mm) of rain forecast within 12 hours, Travel Extra reported. Extremadura suspended classes across the region. Two roads in Cáceres province, the CC-146 and CC-224, were cut by flooding and landslides, Qué reported.

In Ávila province, more than 3,000 residents of Piedralaves were still out of their homes on Wednesday, Reuters reported. They had been evacuated on Tuesday over fears that the nearby Horcajo dam could overflow.

In Andalusia, the regional government sent mobile phone alerts to 30 coastal municipalities in Huelva and Cádiz and along the Strait of Gibraltar, under an orange wind warning. Ferry operators cancelled afternoon crossings from Tarifa, and the University of Cádiz closed its four campuses. Qué reported that 23 municipalities in Seville province recorded rain and flood incidents.

Canary Islands: strongest gusts, no injuries

The Canary Islands, off northwest Africa, recorded the highest wind speeds of the storm. AEMET measured 92 mph (148 km/h) at Izaña on Tenerife and 81 mph (130 km/h) on La Gomera. The Tenerife island government reported a gust of 112 mph (180 km/h) on Mount Teide, at an exposed point above 6,560 feet (2,000 m), Teneriffa News reported. That reading did not come from an AEMET station.

La Palma was under a red alert from 3 a.m. to midday on Wednesday. Rain totals reached 3.0 inches (77 mm) at Cañadas Parador on Tenerife and 2.6 inches (64.8 mm) at Hermigua on La Gomera. Crews cleared fallen trees and rockfalls, Teide National Park closed, and several roads were cut.

Spanish airport operator Aena reported 18 cancellations and 10 diversions in the islands by midday Wednesday. Some of them were due to the strike. The emergency service 112 reported no injuries, and schools reopened on Thursday.

Rain moves on to France and Italy

By Thursday, the remains of Charles had moved east across the Mediterranean. MetDesk reported flooding in Cannes and rockfalls and road closures on the French Riviera. It said Italy issued a red rainfall warning, the country’s highest, for an area from Tuscany to Venice. A further 3.9 inches (100 mm) of rain was possible in Italy and the Balkans, and close to 7.9 inches (200 mm) in the mountains.

AccuWeather said rain would spread across southern France, Switzerland, northern Italy and Croatia through Friday. Readers there should follow warnings from Météo-France, Italy’s civil protection department and their local authorities.

Was Portugal’s shutdown an overreaction?

The scale of the closures drew questions once the storm proved weaker than forecast. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said Charles “did not have the impact on the mainland that the forecasts expected,” but defended the response: “better to prevent than to remedy” (translated). Interior Minister Luís Neves said the government “made decisions very carefully” and “prevented what could have been terrible” (translated).

IPMA’s head of forecasting, Jorge Ponte, told Diário de Notícias that the measures were appropriate given the data available on Tuesday morning. Earlier this year, Portugal’s government was criticized for a slow response to Storms Kristin and Leonardo, Reuters noted.

What travelers should know

• The flight cancellations in Portugal and Spain were concentrated on Wednesday, November 11. If you are travelling in the coming days, check your flight status with the airline before going to the airport.
• In southern France and northern Italy, flood and rockfall risks were expected to continue into Friday. Mountain roads and coastal routes are the most likely to close.
• Official warnings come from IPMA in Portugal, AEMET in Spain, Météo-France and Italy’s civil protection department. Their warnings take priority over any forecast in news reports.

Sources

• Al Jazeera and AP: Portugal cancels more than 300 flights, shuts schools (Nov 11)
• Reuters via WHTC: Portugal cancels 200-plus flights, shuts schools as Storm Charles hits (Nov 11)
• AccuWeather: Storm Charles floods Madeira before disrupting travel across Portugal (Nov 12)
• Travel Extra: Spain flights disrupted by Storm Charles (Nov 12)
• Finwire and MetDesk: Storm Charles causes floods and flight cancellations across southern Europe (Nov 13)
• RTP: Depressão Charles live coverage (Nov 11–12, Portuguese)
• Sábado: Timeline of warnings, closures and government advice (Nov 12, Portuguese)
• Diário de Notícias: Depressão Charles live coverage (Nov 11, Portuguese)
• Correio da Manhã: Rain, strong wind and rough seas leave country on alert (Nov 10–11, Portuguese)
• Qué: Charles leaves roads cut and flights cancelled (Nov 12, Spanish)
• Teneriffa News: Storm Charles in the Canary Islands (Nov 13, Spanish)
• Moncloa.com: Storm Charles in Spain (Nov 13, Spanish)