Storm Charles Floods Madeira and Portugal as Spain Issues Red Rain Warning for Cáceres
Spain's national weather agency, AEMET, issued a new Red warning for extreme rain over Norte de Cáceres, in western Spain, as storm Charles made landfall on the Iberian Peninsula on Nov. 11, 2026, flooding parts of Madeira and mainland Portugal. The warning runs from 8 a.m. to just before midnight local time and, as of 08:11 UTC on Nov. 11, 2026, forecasts 120 millimeters of rain in twelve hours, AEMET said.
AEMET classified the event as an "Extreme rain warning." The CAP record relayed by MeteoAlarm rates it awareness level 4, red, which the record labels "Extreme." AEMET urged residents to take precautionary action, remain vigilant and follow official guidance, warning that extreme or catastrophic damage to people and property was possible, especially in exposed or vulnerable areas, and advising that only essential travel be undertaken. AEMET and Portugal's weather agency, IPMA, also kept Orange-level wind, rain and coastal warnings in force across the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Andalucía and Portugal.
Storm Charles was already leaving Madeira by the morning of Nov. 11, 2026, Observador reported, citing the Lusa news agency. Madeira's regional civil protection service logged 137 weather-related incidents, most of them flooding, between 8 p.m. Nov. 10, 2026, and 6:30 a.m. Nov. 11, 2026, with no injuries or deaths, regional commander Valter Ferreira told Lusa. The storm produced wind gusts of 130 kilometers per hour and six-hour rainfall that topped 240 millimeters in the island's highlands as it exited around 6 a.m. Nov. 11, 2026. "The situation in Madeira is already becoming less serious," IPMA meteorologist Paula Leitão told Observador. "The worst has already passed, and there was a lot of rain." Mainland Portugal had logged 70 weather incidents as of 7 a.m. Nov. 11, 2026, including floods and fallen trees and none rated significant, Portugal's civil protection authority said, according to Observador.
A separate Civil Protection tally, carried by Observador's radio bulletin, put mainland Portugal's weather-related incidents at 1,240 on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, mostly in the greater Lisbon area. Of those, 743 were floods, 190 were fallen trees, 176 were collapsed structures, 90 were road-clearing operations and 40 were landslides. More than 4,000 personnel were deployed to respond, and Civil Protection had no reports of casualties in that period, the source said.
In Andalucía, the regional government suspended in-person classes on Nov. 11, 2026, in 30 municipalities along the Cádiz and Huelva coasts, including the Strait of Gibraltar, after the coastal wind forecast rose from 90 to 120 kilometers per hour as of 08:09 UTC on Nov. 11, 2026, ABC reported. Antonio Sanz, the region's deputy premier and emergencies chief, raised Andalucía's flood-risk emergency plan, known as PERI, to its first operational phase, effective 8 p.m. Nov. 10, 2026, the newspaper said.
