This doesn’t sound good, and let’s hope that everyone is OK, and no damage or casualties.
The torrential rain recorded in the last 3 hours in Santana has already almost doubled the amount from which it reaches the red warning criterion (6-hour interval) by accumulating 116 liters per square meter (mm) between 19:00 and 22:00.
Heavy showers, occasionally hail and accompanied by thunderstorms, also reached a red warning amount for the 1-hour interval, reaching an extreme value of 43.2 mm/1h.
Rain that, however, in the last hour, spread to the municipality of Machico, but in very small amounts.
There is also a record of the fall of 2 (positive) cloud-ground lightning, at 20:31 and 20:33, hitting the ground in the São Jorge and/or Arco de São Jorge area.
The heavy rainfall concentrated in the Santana and São Jorge area led IPMA this evening to issue and update warnings for precipitation and thunderstorms on the north coast of Madeira.
Large amounts of hail has also fallen which could cause a lot of damage to plants and crops.
This seems to be an extreme situation, which no model predicted or even came close to predicting. We will know more in the morning.