Mainland Portugal faces a cold frontal surface of moderate to strong activity. “There were 435 floods, 163 tree falls, 77 road cleanings, 76 structure falls and 31 mass movements and one water rescue.”
The more than 47,000 lightning strikes that occurred in the last 24 hours in Portugal constitute “an event with a degree of exceptionality”, a meteorologist from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) told the Lusa agency.
The IPMA page reported at 1:00 p.m. a total of 47,676 electrical discharges atmospheric (DEA) recorded in the last 24 hours by its network of detectors in the continental territory and adjacent oceanic areas.
bruh… at 5:00 right. what a thunderstorm
— suzy (@_susana_gomes_)
The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) registered 784 occurrences between 00:00 and 12:00 today related to strong rain and wind, operations officer José Costa told the Lusa agency.
“There were 435 floods, 163 tree falls, 77 road cleanings, 76 structure falls and 31 mass movements, that is, falls of rocks and lands, and also one water rescue”, he specified, adding that the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region was the most affected, with 409 occurrences, followed by the Center region (191), North (132) and Alentejo (52).
This is how we are at 4:30 am in Cacém, thunderstorm or end of the world? 😅😅
— André Ferreira (@AndrFer69499029)
The operator of the electrical distribution network, E-Redes, indicated, in turn, that it had around 25 thousand customers without electricity at 12:00, due to bad weather, and 500 operational personnel mobilized on the ground, hoping to “quickly resolve all constraints”
“Very rare”
“It can be said that this is an event with a degree of exceptionality”, said Pedro Sousa, adding that it was “a value that is not very common” for the area. “It certainly doesn’t happen every year that there is an event of this magnitude and with this frequency of electrical discharges”, he added.
The meteorologist indicated, however, that the number of lightning strikes also includes strikes that occurred in Spain.
The fact is associated with the approach and passage of a frontal system, which, he said, is “relatively typical for this time of year”. But “this front has some characteristics in terms of indicators and instability rates that are a little more pronounced than most of the fronts that cross us (…) and, therefore, the potential to generate more thunderstorms than is common”, he added.
“We had one of the most spectacular meteorological phenomena with sound and light” says the director of the IPMA Meteorology Department, Victor Prior, to . “Records show that these episodes are increasingly frequent, as are intense rains.”
Mainland Portugal is being affected by a cold front surface of moderate to strong activity, causing rain, thunderstorms and wind, according to the IPMA, which issued for this Wednesday yellow warnings due to thunderstorms for all districts of mainland Portugal, with that of Bragança.
Pay attention to Meteorological Warnings for Mainland Portugal:
Maritime Unrest – Yellow [ 05 Nov 07:17 – 06 Nov 00:00 ]
Maritime Unrest – Orange [ 06 Nov 00:00 – 06 Nov 09:00 ]— IPMA (@ipma_pt)
