Bad Weather Madeira

The rain certainly came down and never stopped. It has rain all day, and pretty heavy at times, low cloud also in some parts causing visibility problems.

The alert for the south of the Island was raised to orange from 5pm-9pm, and as i write this at 01.15 the rain is still falling.

Rivers are pretty full, lots of flooding and landslides have already started cause some roads to be blocked or closed. Lots of the usual problems at the airport also with flights being diverted to Porto Santo, and water falling in the main Airport Building...

26 flights have been affected with 16 being cancelled, the other 10  flights 5 were diverted to other airports, including the last flight from Lisbon, which tried to land 3 times before giving up and returning to Lisbon.

A wall collapsed at Quinta Magnolia.

Margarida Rodrigues‎

These photos are from the Tunnel da Camacha

                                                                                     Claudio Fernandes‎

Also many drain covers lifted with the sheer volume of water, and the roads are in a bit of a mess all over with more pot holes than you can imagine to try and avoid.... Power cuts this evening in Caniço de Baixo, the power has been off and on a few times, but seems to be stable now. 

The good news is that from today (Friday), the weather looks like it will settle down for a while with some good dry weather. 

Wind on the way.

Madeira has been placed on Orange alert for strong winds gusting up to 120kmph in places. This warning will start at Midday Tuesday and run till 6am Wednesday. Madeira is also on yellow alert for rain sometimes heavy in places. This again is for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The image below shows the bad weather heading east.

Weather update

Madeira has been placed on red alert for wind over much of the island,especially higher ground and orange alert round the coasts.  Also orange alert for heavy rain along the south coast and bad sea conditions.

Update 3pm

Flights to Madeira have either been canceled or diverted to other locations, a few flights have managed to land though. There is no rain yet but the wind is strong and gusty.
The sea has spectacular waves of 5-6 meters along the south coast and with high tide due at 8.33 pm, I expect some damage or places on the coast will suffer from flooding.
The rain due later is expected to be heavy especially over higher ground with the worst period being between 9pm - 3am but the amount of rain is expected to be 20-30% less than what fell on the 20th February 2010.

Heavy rain.

Heavy rain last night on the north of the island had caused problems in some areas. Porto da Cruz deems to be the worst affected area with heavy rainfall causing flooding, damage to homes and cars being washed away. Many landslides are also causing problems on some routes in the area. Madeira will ray on yellow alert until Saturday 6pm. Mountainous regions are on orange alert until later today.

Photos are now coming through on Facebook and Porto da Cruz, Santana are very bad with people comparing it to 20th February.

Just an update and a few more photos.

They are now saying that the amount of rain that fell on Santo Serra was equal to that of February 20th 2010.

Figures state that 6 families have been made homeless, 5 people injured and one hospitalised. 

The main road from Portela to Porta Cruz is the worst affected and will take 3-4 days to reopen.

Porto da Cruz is one of my favorite villages and its so sad to see it like this , I hope everything gets sorted out quickly, and returns to looking nice again .

Yellow weather alert.

Just a quick post, as Madeira is put on yellow alert due to heavy rain from Friday 1st March in the afternoon, through to Saturday morning. Sunday looks also to be unsettled with showers in the morning but heavy rain moving in again in the afternoon. The week ahead looks pretty unsettled until mid week, when things should return to drier weather. 

Today, no sign of rain, and the clouds just sitting above the mountain tops, as seen in the photo below, sent in by Peter Askew, taken from lower Funchal with a zoom lens.

Diving on Paul da Serra

Paul da Serra is about 1500 metres above sea level and is the flat Plateau on Madeira. 

After more than a year of very little rain, Madeira had very large amounts of rainfall in a very short time in November transforming the Plateau into an Ocean, and with strong winds gave the effect of waves.

A team of divers decided to go diving on this land and made a video of this very unusual event.

More Bad Weather

Madeira is yet again under a weather alert for more rain and strong winds, this time being Red alert, the most serious on the scale of 4.

As from Saturday 24th November until Monday 26th November bad weather will affect the region, with the worst being from 6pm Saturday till midday Sunday, where heavy rain and winds up to 140km especially over high ground. There is also an orange warning in place for high waves on the north coast and Porto Santo which could reach 7 metres. 

The presidents Civil Protection recognises there are places that are vulnerable especially after the bad weather the North of the Island had 2 weeks ago, and are warning people to stay at home and if you need to go out to be very careful and stay away from rivers and waterfalls.

Please join my blog on the side to receive updates over the weekend.

Meteoalarm

Weather Update 21.30 Saturday 24th

Heavy rain has been falling for a while now, the red alert has been extended by 3 hours till 3pm Sunday 25th, as charts show there could still be large amounts of rainfall.The wind has become a less of a problem, here in Caniço the wind is not really strong, but is expected to pick up over the next 24 hours, but the winds are not going to be as strong as first predicted, with max gusts of 120km over the higher ground.

Weather Update 10.30 Sunday 25th

The weather calmed down over night after some very heavy rain and strong winds that died out around 2 am. This morning the sun is shining but the Institute of Meteorology (IM) has postponed the red alert till Midday today running through to 21.00, with heavy rain, strong wind and the possibility of lightening. 
Some problems have occured in the night with a landslide at Eira do Serrado which is blocking the road. The population of Ponta do Sol are advised not to drink water from the tap, as one of the main water pipes has ruptured affecting more than 80% of the population.

Weather Update 20.30 Sunday 25th

Well we have been on red alert since midday, and I have yet to see a drop of rain or a little wind, hard to believe how they can get this so wrong, and people losing business after closing for the night last night or closing early as everyone stayed at home.