It was the first time in living memory that Portugal’s roughly 8,000 schools had cancelled classes nationwide due to a forecast storm.
Portugal closed all schools and shuttered non-essential public services on Wednesday as Storm Charles headed for the country’s mainland.
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Streets were largely deserted ahead of the arrival of the major Atlantic storm, after the government told people to stay at home. Heavy rain and rough seas were expected to batter the Portuguese coast, with wind gusts of up to 140 kph.
It was the first time in living memory that Portugal’s roughly 8,000 schools had cancelled classes nationwide due to a forecast storm.
The bad weather has left part of the country on hold. One of the most heavily affected sectors is transport, with long-distance coach services halted, cuts and restrictions on rail and river links, flights cancelled and ships subject to restrictions in ports. On Tuesday, thousands of people suffered a power cut.
In the capital, Lisbon, buses drove through the city without passengers, and some streets flooded because of clogged drains. A national supermarket chain closed its stores.
One of the main national retail chains, Pingo Doce, closed all its supermarkets, and even an international technology conference attended by around 70,000 people in Lisbon called off the day’s events. The Web Summit, being held in Lisbon, was scheduled for the second day of its event.
The government has ordered remote working in the civil service, while telecommunications operators and insurance companies have reinforced their response capacity. Assisted by the armed forces, the emergency services are on maximum alert in order to avoid a repeat of the tragedy caused by storm Kristin at the beginning of the year.
Storm Charles lost strength, forecasters say
Meanwhile, the latest forecasts suggest the storm’s impact will be milder than feared, because it has lost the "conditions needed to intensify."
Jorge Ponte, a meteorologist at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), said Charles split into two centres over the past few hours, a change he said "made all the difference."
Speaking to local broadcaster SIC, he said forecasters work with scenarios and probabilities, and most had pointed to a difficult situation on Wednesday. The storm then changed trajectory in a way the models had not predicted, significantly altering the outlook for the coming hours.
Passing further south of Madeira than first forecast, the depression’s centre moved out of reach of the jet stream linked to Storm Bruna, losing the conditions that would have let it intensify.
According to the latest forecasts, one of the storm’s centres will move inland along the Alentejo coast, south of Lisbon. The other is expected to head towards the Central region.
The change does not mean the earlier warnings about strong winds were misplaced, as winds will remain very strong, although some warnings have already been downgraded from red to orange.
Rainfall is also expected to stay intense, spreading gradually to the Central and Northern regions.