Source : Reuters
LISBON, November 11, 2026 – Airlines cancelled more than 200 flights in and out of Portugal, and schools and hundreds of supermarkets and businesses were closed on Wednesday, as Storm Charles made landfall with heavy rain and gale-force winds, Reuters reported, in a dispatch also carried by Channel News Asia.
The government put emergency services and army units on alert, cancelled classes, shut non-essential public services and advised people to stay indoors. Officials said the storm was less severe than initially expected, but they had taken pre-emptive steps after criticism of the government’s slow response to a succession of storms in January and February, the report said.
Portugal’s weather service, IPMA, said the eye of the storm had split in two over the Atlantic, diminishing its strength when it arrived via the southern Algarve region. It was expected to reach most of southern Portugal and the Lisbon region through late afternoon. Civil Protection Commander Mario Silvestre said authorities were maintaining high alert levels for flash floods, wind and rough seas after registering 538 incidents since midnight, Reuters reported.
Storm Charles had already swept through the Madeira archipelago, causing flooding and felling trees. Emergency services rescued a man who was swept away when water flooded his garage on Madeira. No casualties were reported, the same account said.
Since Sunday, Portugal and neighbouring Spain have been hit by heavy rains from Storm Bruna, with flooding in several areas, including road tunnels in Lisbon, which were mostly shut on Wednesday. The new storm was expected to reach southwestern Spain on Wednesday afternoon. Spain’s weather service, AEMET, warned of a “serious or very serious” impact from heavy rain, strong winds and rough seas that could worsen conditions left by Bruna. In central Spain, authorities maintained the evacuation of more than 3,000 people in Piedralaves, who had been moved from their homes on Tuesday because of the risk that a local dam would overflow, and warned that rainfall was expected to intensify from midday.
Reuters, posting on X, said Portugal had cancelled “200-plus” flights and shut schools as the storm hit. Some later reports used a higher figure for cancellations; this account uses the Reuters total of more than 200, which was also the figure carried by Channel News Asia and The Straits Times.
Storm names in this sequence, Bruna and then Charles, were assigned by European meteorological services tracking a train of Atlantic low-pressure systems. Forecasters had warned for days that Charles would bring strong winds and further heavy rain to already saturated ground, which was why schools and non-essential public services were closed in advance of landfall rather than after damage had been assessed.
Lisbon authorities and national emergency services asked the public to avoid unnecessary travel while the alerts remained in force. The closures of schools and non-essential public offices were presented as a precaution rather than as a sign that the storm had already caused widespread structural damage in the capital.
Source: Reuters, Channel News Asia and The Straits Times
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