Heavy rain in the far east ‘diverted’ two planes

Caniçal accumulated 26.3 liters per square meter in 1 hour.

The possibility that the periods of rain or showers predicted for this afternoon in the Region could be heavy at times, almost only occurred in the extreme east of the island of Madeira. In the last hour (between 5:50 pm and 6:50 pm) the Caniçal meteorological station, in Ponta de São Lourenço, recorded 26.3 liters per square meter (mm), a value that corresponds to an orange warning within 1 hour. A third of this recorded amount of rain fell in just 10 min (9.2 mm).

At approximately the same time, the rain in Santa Cruz/Airport was also very significant, which recorded an extreme value of 17.3 mm/1h (corresponds to a yellow warning). An episode that led to constraints in air operations at Madeira International Airport – Cristiano Ronaldo, with two international planes diverting to the Canary Islands.

In the IPMA meteorological station network in the Madeira Archipelago (18 on the island of Madeira, 1 in Porto Santo), the rain that occurred in the last few hours – until 10 am – provided six meteorological warning records. In addition to the two very significant records at the two IPMA stations located further east of Madeira, the rain reached a yellow warning level in Chão do Areeiro (14.4 mm/1h), Pico do Areeiro (12.7 mm/1h), Santo da Serra (12.8 mm/1h), and Pico Alto (12.0 mm/1h).

Precipitation was recorded in all stations, although in the far west the rain fell almost residually. The accumulated amount did not reach 1.0 mm in Ponta do Pargo (0.8 mm) and Porto Moniz (0.9 mm).

Note also the air temperature, with São Vicente recording this Thursday, June 6th, the highest maximum (27.2 ºC).