Weekend weather worsening

rainThe weather is getting worse with 11 red warnings for coastal districts from now until 18:00 on Sunday.

The weather service has warned of winds gusting from 85 kmph to 120 kmph in the north of the country with many districts currently on orange alert upgraded to a red alert from early Sunday morning.

 

The weather already has worsened in the north and by the early evening, other regions had increasing winds speeds and rain.

The 11 districts that now are on a red warning are Faro, Beja, Setúbal, Lisbon, Leiria, Coimbra, Aveiro, Porto, Braga, Vila Real and Viana do Castelo. The red alert takes effect at 03:00 on Sunday until 18:00 of the same day.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Civil Protection ageny said it had reinforced the monitoring of river basins that could flood, namely the Tagus, Vouga (Águeda) and Douro (Tâmega).

The weather service warns of the strong rain, wind and high seas that will be felt on mainland Portugal in the coming hours due to storm Felix.

At dawn on Sunday the wind will slow down, although remaining moderate to strong on the coast and in hilly areas.

"Particularly on the western coast, there's a possibility of localised extremes of wind occurring, which may gust higher than those predicted," read a same statement from the IPMA.

The seas have been dramatic along the west coast with 6 metre waves  on Saturday afternoon about to be dwarfed by 14 metre waves due tomorrow morning but calming by the afternoon, although still under a bad weather warning.

The rain will continue strong with some hail in the northern and central regions, sometimes accompanied by thunderstorms. From noon on Sunday, however, these downpours will tend to decline, especially in the Algarve region.

Storm Felix is moving across the north of the country and by midnight on Saturday its centre will be over northwest Galicia.

There was news of a tornado on Saturday, this time in Braga off the beach of Esposende.