Two cores, 538 call-outs by noon: Charles reaches the mainland smaller, and still wet

On Tuesday this desk reported that Storm Charles might come ashore near Lisbon with a possible sting jet. On Wednesday it did something less dramatic and more useful: it split. IPMA meteorologist Patrícia Gomes told Lusa the depression divided into “two distinct low-pressure cores” (our translation) and lost strength, one heading for Lisbon, the other running along the Algarve coast from Sagres to Vila Real de Santo António¹. The civil protection commander said a sting jet had become less likely².

The wind came down; the rain stayed. Warnings were cut accordingly. By early afternoon Lisbon and Setúbal were on red for rain only until 15:00 Lisbon time (16:00 CET), and Leiria, Castelo Branco, Beja and Portalegre went from red to orange¹. Faro remained the only district on red for wind¹. Gusts above 120 km/h were still recorded on exposed coast and in the Serra de Monchique¹. Between midnight and noon Lisbon time, civil protection counted 538 incidents on the mainland, mostly floods, fallen trees and road clearances, chiefly around Lisbon and Setúbal². On Tuesday it had been 1,240¹.

What the day cost, so far. By 11:00 Lisbon time, 360 flights had been cancelled at Lisbon, Madeira, Faro and Porto, most of them at Lisbon¹. Eight national roads were restricted by 14:00, including the Eixo Norte-Sul access in Lisbon¹. The grid held: E-REDES, the distribution operator, said the night passed “without significant incidents”, with about 2,000 customers without power at 07:00 Lisbon time, after it had put generators, mobile power units, helicopters and drones on standby³.

Was it too much? Asked whether the state had overreacted with closed schools and services, interior minister Luís Neves said no, and that “prevention is always the best remedy” (our translation)¹. You can disagree about the dose. But note what the closures bought: the incidents that came were small ones, handled by crews already on shift. A forecast that softens a day later is not an embarrassment for IPMA; it is what forecasts do when the atmosphere changes its mind.

For you. If you fly to or from Portugal this week, TAP has let Wednesday passengers rebook without penalty for flights until 17 November¹. The heaviest rain was expected between 15:00 and 18:00 Lisbon time, in places until 21:00², so the full tally of damage will come on Thursday, and with it the first insurance claims.