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I had 14 pines break or fall over; mostly big tall ones.
Several willow trees too.
A couple of accias and some fencing, but they hardly count.

The rain is welcome though; the Santa Clara dam in up to 72% today. If this keeps up, it might even get full before summer.

How are you all doing?

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We are currently in Queluz as wife had her AIMA appointment yesterday, which I will cover in another post. We got here on Tuesday to mixed rain and sunshine. There are lots of trees down including one in a small river that got washed downstream and got caught in a hydraulic trap, and another large tree about 100 yards away on the side of the river which crashed down right through a basketball court. We walked the palace gardens here on Tuesday afternoon and they seem to have lost none of the probably thousands of trees that make the gardens such a beautiful place and a must visit.

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well I have just finished building my Ark.............put it that way

I might snorkel into town later though

rain....rain ...and errrrr more rain, biblical at times, no lasting damage, although it did find its way through the walls in the kitchen monday night/tuesday morning (the kitchen is half underground built into the hillside) thought I had cracked it this year until the deluge.............nowt a few towels couldnt sort out, back to the drawing board for next winter on that one spot.

on the plus side, the Sikagard 700 did a fantastic job on the rest of the exterior stonework, didnt expect it to live up to its claims, however for a very rare occurance something actually does what it says on the tin.

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Solar array ripped from roof taking beams and tiles with it ,we were busy tidying up blown about items 10 minutes before it landed on the terrace, would have killed us but for luck. ( about 4.30 yesterday morning)

Chapp fences hanging by a thread ,guttering ripped off ,now water coming through ceilings.

Feeling abandoned by our insurance company at present, but they have a local office, time to visit later today.

(no water ,power all day yesterday, now have power. Water, no Internet yet though)

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Ouch!
That sounds like some serious damage. Where are you located?

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So sorry to hear this. Good luck at the insurance office.

Rosemary

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Small village outside caldas da rainha
Unfortunately in this case on top of a hill 😕

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It's hard to remember the last day without lashing rain here in deepest Alentejo - I'm tired of hearing wind howling and rain coming down in bucketloads! Our own barragem was full by the end of December and is now just flooding the valley on the way to the nearest barranco, which has changed from a dry stream-bed to a raging torrent. There is no chance to do much to clear up outside, let alone anything more constructive (I had a shed delivered earlier this month...... it's still in boxes outside and wrapped in plastic sheet with bricks and tiles to hold it down!!. The gale the night before last ripped a 4" branch off one of our Yucca trees and deposited it on the machine-house roof (but apparently with no damage to the structure), and all sorts of garbage from the other trees has been strewn across the patio and into the pool. The wind also overturned a wheelbarrow, sent the recycling bins on a journey to the boundary fence and ripped off most coverings, whilst rain from every imaginable direction has soaked most of our stored firewood whether in the wood-shed or otherwise covered:(. Deep joy!

Our access to the road is now cut by a fast-running stream where water is draining of the surrounding fields, the ground there is completely sodden and any mud has turned to slime, so it's fun even getting on and off our property, let alone along the 1.5km dirt track before you hit metalled surface. The joys of life in "o cú de Judas"!! We've also sprung a number of leaks..... nothing serious, but a PITA when you can't dry anything out before the next storm. Everyone says they remember times like this back in the 90's, but not since (and certainly not in our 12 years).

Not a winter to be remembered fondly. :blink:

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Anyone else remember the cloudless blue skies in Nov, Dec Jan Feb of 20 years ago, in the Algarve at least?
Of course because of that it was very cold at night, but this change to continuous cloud and rain, in the winter, has slowly become the norm.
Question is, Is this now a fixture of Portugal weather in winter, combined with more heat in summer.

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bits of localised damage around here, a few trees blown over and some minor landslides onto roads due to the heavy rain............. no doubt soon to taped off with the ubiquitous red and white plastic magic barrier tape

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They are saying that the Atlantic is experiencing increased wind speeds or projected to increase in the coming years. Same for us in Ireland and although we are used to wind here, it is getting more extreme or storms happen more often. This year hasn't been too bad but last year we thought the roof would come off and were without power for over a week. That is the downside being at the edge of the Atlantic but climate changing everywhere.

https://globalwindatlas.info/en/area/Portugal/Faro

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Just checked satellite and looks like some serious amounts of rain for parts of Portugal and Spain. This could lead to very bad flooding in next few days. Be careful 🙏
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...d9774763ea.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...6c7b502aaa.jpg

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Rain hammering on the roof woke us up an hour ago.

We had minor stuff in the last storm, cushions in the pool, few pots over.

The track is becoming almost impassable, will have to borrow a friend's tractor soon, I think.

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This rain is more like the historical norm I think. Old guy told me that when he was a child, it rained like this every year.
The Iberian peninsula has been drying up for the last couple of decades, some say even turning to desert.
While the rain might be inconvenient, and the wind damaging, the replenishing of ground water is essential to sustain life.

Be happy!

I cleaned up 8 of my fallen trees yesterday. I'll clean up the rest after the storm has passed.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...ea5ab13cdf.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...88512c97c5.jpg

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silver lining = plenty of firewood for next winter eh

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Pine; no one wants it.
I'll make lumber out of the bigger logs; but... Pine.
No one wants it.

A couple of willows fell down too, they burn quite well.
I don't burn wood for heat.​​​​​†‹â€‹
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...263d889159.jpg

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Rain is welcome but a big difference to it being just wet or so wet that people lose homes.

News today on German weather station:Portugal is facing extreme weather conditions! Up to 500 litres of rain are expected this week. Combined with the rainfall from Hurricane KRISTIN at the end of January, this could lead to the flood of the century.

Portugal is facing a massive rain disaster in the first week of February! The situation is extremely serious: at the end of January, Hurricane KRISTIN and other storms brought up to 500 litres of rain per square metre to some regions – and now weather models are forecasting another 500 litres. In total, that would be around 1,000 litres of rain per square metre within a short period of time.

By way of comparison, this is roughly equivalent to the average annual rainfall in Munich and even double what cities such as Vienna or Berlin receive in a whole year. Such amounts of rain overwhelm even large river systems.

‘We are preparing for the worst-case scenario,’ Coimbra Mayor Ana Abrunhosa told state television station RTP. There were fears that dams and dykes would not be able to withstand the feared masses of water.

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1,000 litres of rain per square metre................... I want some of the drugs yre on but in a smaller dose though .............. please............. a ton of rain per square metre .......... and are they on prescription of off of a corner in Porto, I am going to Porto on Wed ........... take me to your dealer .................:hand:

500lts of rain per square metre, in what time frame are we talking ? a year ? 2 year ? 5 year ? are you mad

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dont get me wrong we have had some rain up here recently ...about 10mm per hour at times............ so if we take that as an average 240mm per day, so a litre every 4 days yeah (or thereabouts) so 500 litre would take 125 days (or thereabouts) of continuous 10mm per hour rain .....ergo 1000ltr would take approx 250 days of continuous rain at 10mm per hour (or thereabouts) ............ I keep saying thereabouts cos my solicitor always advises caution ..... ie:- allegedly etc.

am i missing something here.............eh............. I have built an ark though Moses

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Well imagine, they had 497 in 24 hours
An extreme precipitation event (EPE) occurred on Madeira Island between 5 and 6 June 2023, setting a new daily precipitation record for Portugal of 497.5mm (IPMA, 2023), surpassing the previous daily record of 333.8mm recorded in February 2010 (Fragoso et al., 2012).

https://www.ipma.pt/en/oclima/extremos.clima/
Your math is wrong,

Yes, in meteorological and practical terms,
1 millimeter (mm) of rainfall is equivalent to 1 liter of water per square meter

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Usually rain is measured in total mm over a given period, like per hour or 24 hours.
liters per m2 is the same number, just an odd way of presenting it.

We haven't had anything like that amount of rainfall where I live. We have had plenty though, and the neglected drains are causing water to run down the road behind my house (among other things).
My forest is a lake, and my bath barely drains.

Terrible for the people who have major property damage, injuries, or even death.

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In any case, 500mm of rainfall in a few days is a serious amount. As a comparison, in the West of Ireland where I'm from, we receive on average 93mm for the whole of February and people here complain it's wet.

Of course weather is always localised, but it's really no joke. I follow various weather channels and so far all agree that these amounts on top of what already came down is very dangerous.

Anyone interested can check themselves. Just saying, stay stafe.

https://www.wxcharts.com/?dataset=ec...=51.5&lon=0.12

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This is Mrs Sportpix - a chartered civil engineer with expertise in hydrological management. I have spent the bulk of my career in Hong Kong where we experience between 2500mm to 3000mm per year.
The HKSAR doesn’t issue a rainfall warning until 30mm/ hr has fallen or is anticipated. This is an Amber warning , and certainly doesn’t ruffle the feathers of the general population. We then have “Red” warnings for 50mm/hr and “Black” warnings for 70 mm/hrwhen the public is advised to stay indoors and schools may be cancelled.
I have experienced in excess of 100mm/hr and more than 500mm in a 6-hour period.
”Hydrology 101” also tells us that rainfall isn’t the same as runoff. For further information refer to the “hydrological cycle”. Rainfall may be intercepted by vegetation/surface depressions (some of this will ultimately evaporate - wind alone will achieve this, no need for sunshine), some will infiltrate into the ground depending on soil type and antecedent conditions.

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Oooh, hello! :welcome:

Welcome to Portugal, and to the forum, from me :)

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Below is the rainfall from a Weather Station near Porto, Pacos de Ferreira. I lived in Spain and one year, 2007, the Rio Girona burst it's banks after 440 litres/m2 in 6 hours. Cars were swept away, houses were flooded, I lost my car. The record for the area was a town called Oliva where over 800 litres/m2 fell in 24 hours. The rainfall there is seriously dangerous when it happens as the recent storms in Valencia proved. Here it is just persistent and annoying if you like the outdoor life but we do require an annual rainfall to keep nature working properly. When I say here I mean the Porto area which is used to a lot more rain than further south.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...1a56a3c68a.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...61eb3117f9.png

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This is Mrs Sportpix recommending the use of consistent units would help the non- scientists understand.
440 litres is 0.44 cubic metres. Landing per square metre that is a depth of 440mm of rainfall. Being recorded over 6 hours this is equivalent to a mean rainfall intensity of just over 73mm/hr (which would qualify as a black rainstorm in Hong Kong).
Clarifying matters for the general public (and on occasion High Court judges) is an essential skill for professional engineers.

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You need to have a word with the Spanish press as most of them refer to litres/m2. :p I always thought of inches rain until living there where they converted me to litres/m2. Now I am slowly converting to mm/day. :thumbsup:
https://www.lasprovincias.es/comunit...131523-nt.html

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This is Mr Sportpix, now you know what I have to put up with 😩

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As an amatuer engineer, I have nothing but respect for professionals who really know their stuff.

1Steve put up a graph that shows 500mm for the year to date; which seems more like reality to me.
I can only say that in my area, flooding and washed out roads are the result of a lack of maintanance to drainage systems.
It hasn't rained like this in so long that no one was paying attention anymore.

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The graphs 1Steve put up are monthly values.
500mm in a year would be the driest parts of the country. In the North more like 1000mm+
As an example in Spain, Vigo gets around 1700mm rainfall per year.

The record for mainland Portugal is 220,0 mm of rainfall in 24 hours from 1977.

https://www.ipma.pt/en/oclima/extremos.clima/

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I wrote year to date; that is, from Jan 1.
So yes, a month.
We got less than 500mm per year for 8 of the last 10 years according to my own at home measurements.

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In Hong Kong we get around three metres of rain per year so big storms and typhoons are commonplace. In the mid 1990s I was photographically recording the construction of our first public golf course, which is situated on an island that the British navy used to use for shelling practice. Basically the holes are shaped, drainage and irrigation laid and then a sand cap of about 18 inches covers the whole thing and springs of grass are scattered on top and worked in by a simple machine that is dragged behind a fat tyred vehicle. During the course of construction we had a massive storm blow in that dumped one metre of rain over a weekend. The grass on the course was bedding in nicely at this point but when the storm arrived it did all sorts of damage. The 11th is a par three played uphill, and when I get there with my camera gear following the storm I found the 11th green had been reduced to a large pile of sand in a pond located next to the tee. Right now the weather in the Algarve feels more like the weather Hong Kong, which is somewhat depressing.

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It won't happen very often Sportpix. According to one of my Portuguese friends, he can't remember this happening in his lifetime and he's in his mid 50's.

Been very wet here, wind not too bad, so no damage.

And I have to navigate dirt tracks over streams this morning, to get into Ourique. Not looking forward to it.

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Don't worry!
Soon it will be dry and sunny again.
Every day.

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Sorry, the image I had seen was December 2025.

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You were also right; I only looked at the bottom graph (January 2026).

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Looks like the jet stream is on the move finally, it will buckle and move further north over the next week, given us a break from this awful weather.

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I was just watching a German weather forecast for next week and it is predicting very heavy rain for Portugal, Spain, Italy and Morroco