Storm Charles brings floods and flight cancellations across southern Europe
Storm Charles caused widespread flooding, damaging winds and transport disruption across Portugal, Spain, southern France and Italy during the week of 11 November. The system first hit Madeira, where Funchal airport recorded a wind gust of 136 km/h and rainfall of 355mm in just 12 hours. As the storm reached the mainland, Lisbon cancelled 183 flights—about one-third of its usual daily traffic—while Madrid Barajas reported 155 cancellations.
Flooding spread across parts of Spain and Portugal before the storm moved north-east through southern France. In Cannes, floodwater contributed to rock falls and forced road closures along the French Riviera. Italy’s weather service issued its highest-level red rainfall warning from Tuscany to Venezia, with further heavy rain expected across Italy and the Balkans. Forecast models suggested another 100mm could fall widely, with totals approaching 200mm in mountainous areas.
The article also reports a separate week of severe weather in British Columbia, Canada. More than 400,000 customers lost power between Monday and Friday, followed by further outages affecting 135,000 customers over the weekend. Downed trees, flooded roads and landslides were reported, while winds reached 116 km/h on Herbert Island and 96 km/h at Victoria International Airport. Heavy-rain and flood warnings remained in force, with more than 100mm and gusts above 60mph forecast for Vancouver Island over the following weekend.
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