אזהרת שיטפון שהונפקה

In a briefing to the media to take stock of events related to the bad weather that is affecting the country, the national commander of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), André Fernandes, explained that the worsening of the meteorological situation in those six districts will happen from this afternoon (12 December) until Tuesday.

According to André Fernandes, the districts of Leiria, Setúbal, Lisbon, Évora, Santarém and Portalegre will go on orange alert (the second most serious on a scale of four) this afternoon.

The heavy and persistent rain will be accompanied by “extreme wind phenomena”, said the national commander, adding that there will be “an aggravation of the wind with gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour and locally 120 kilometres per hour in the southern region on Tuesday morning”.

André Fernandes also said that maritime agitation remains strong.

“Flood phenomena in urban areas and increased flows are to be expected, namely in the basins of the metropolitan area of Lisbon”, he specified.

In turn, in the districts of Aveiro, Porto, Braga and Viana do Castelo, where this morning there was a worsening of the weather, the situation will improve and during the afternoon the possibility of relieving the orange alert level will be analysed.

“The northern districts have the orange alert notice until the end of today, now with contact with the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) we will check whether or not we can downgrade the northern part of the country and we will maintain permanent contact with the IPMA to validate point by point the situations that arise”, he stressed.

The official stressed that "there is a situation of great instability", so the situations have to be reviewed "almost hour by hour" so that "the responses and warnings to the population" are fine-tuned.

André Fernandes also warned that the bad weather would continue, namely “heavy and persistent precipitation” with conditions favourable to the occurrence of thunderstorms, until Thursday.