Portugal’s National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) recorded 784 weather-related incidents between midnight and midday this Wednesday, as heavy rain and strong winds battered the country.
According to operations officer José Costa, there were 435 floods, 163 fallen trees, 77 road clearances, 76 collapsed structures, and 31 landslides, as well as one water rescue.
The Lisbon and Tagus Valley region was the hardest hit, accounting for 409 incidents, followed by the Centre (191), North (132) and Alentejo (52) regions, Costa told the Lusa news agency.
The sole water rescue took place at Praia do Sul in Ericeira (Mafra), where “two people were pulled from the sea and taken to hospital with minor injuries.” One person was also left homeless in Paço de Arcos (Oeiras) after their home was damaged.
To respond to the wave of incidents, authorities deployed 2,841 personnel and 984 vehicles nationwide. Costa noted that while weather warnings remain in place, conditions appear to be “gradually improving.”
“We still have several active weather alerts for rain, wind, thunderstorms, and rough seas until the end of the day,” he added.
Mainland Portugal has been affected by a cold front of moderate to strong intensity, bringing torrential rain, thunderstorms, and gusty winds, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
Overnight, the Lisbon Fire Brigade (Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros) received around 50 emergency calls in just three hours, mostly due to flooding on public roads and private properties.
Between 4:40 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., dozens of residents in the capital sought help as lightning storms lit up the night sky.
“This is what 4:30 a.m. looks like in Cacém, thunderstorm or the end of the world?” wrote one user on social media platform X, as videos of the intense lightning circulated online.
Another clip, filmed in Olivais, was described by locals as an “impressive scene”.
In São Marcos, Sintra, four cars were damaged by falling trees. The town’s newly elected mayor, Marco Almeida, speaking to CMTV and SIC Notícias, promised swift action:
“I want to assure residents that this time, unlike before, the local authority will take full responsibility once the causes are established, no passing the buck.”
He added that tree maintenance had been neglected, stressing that “these situations cannot be allowed to happen again.”
IPMA issued an orange alert for heavy rainfall and a yellow warning for thunderstorms, which were due to remain in force until late morning (9 a.m. or 12 p.m., depending on district). The storm is expected to wane from Wednesday evening onwards.
The institute warned that showers would continue throughout the afternoon, particularly along the northern and central coasts, sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder.
Winds were expected to strengthen between Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday, with gusts of up to 80 km/h along the coast and 110 km/h in the northern and central highlands.
IPMA also forecast rough seas on the western coast, with waves of 4 to 5 metres, possibly reaching 6 metres overnight, prompting an orange maritime warning.
Additionally, more than 47,000 lightning strikes were recorded across Portugal in the past 24 hours, an event described as “exceptional in scale” by a meteorologist from IPMA.
As of 1 p.m., IPMA’s monitoring network had detected 47,676 atmospheric discharges over mainland Portugal and adjacent oceanic areas. “This can be considered an event of exceptional magnitude,” said meteorologist Pedro Sousa, adding that such a high figure is “not very common” for the region.
“It’s certainly not every year that we see an event of this size and frequency of lightning strikes,” he noted.
Sousa clarified that the total count also includes discharges recorded over parts of Spain, as the storm system crossed the Iberian Peninsula.
The phenomenon was linked to the approach and passage of a cold front, which, while typical for this time of year, exhibited “unusually strong instability indicators,” giving it greater potential to generate thunderstorms.
Meanwhile, E-Redes, the national electricity distribution operator, reported that around 25,000 customers were without power as of midday. Some 500 field technicians were deployed to restore service, and the company said it expected to “resolve all disruptions quickly.”
