The amount of rain that fell in Portugal during the first half of November is around a quarter of the normal average.
This has prolonged the drought across the mainland and has increased the areas now classified as suffering from ‘extreme drought.’
Data from the 15th of November shows that 6% of the territory was in severe drought and the remaining 94% in extreme drought on that day.
This is nothing new as drought conditions have been recorded for the past six months, made worse by this lack of Autumn rainfall that should already have started to replenish reservoirs, bring relief to crops and livestock, and dampen down Portugal’s forests where fire warnings have remained in place.
The forecast is for rain in the Algarve from Thursday, increasing in probabilityas the week goes on.
Meanwhile, the Açores is the place to get drenched.
Portugal’s weather service has increased its rain warning for the central islands in the Açores archipelago, with the eastern group also getting a severe drenching.
According to the IPMA, there currently is an orange weather alert for Faial, Graciosa, Pico, São Jorge and Terceira, the central group, until Monday morning with this afternoon’s rain becoming increasingly heavy overnight.
In the eastern group, the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria have a yellow warning for increasingly bad weather after thunderstorms and rain on Sunday afternoon.
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This is a national picture and there was a bit of rain earlier in the month, somewhere, briefly...