Extreme rainfall of 57.0 mm/6h overnight in Chão do Areeiro.
Last night, the Chão do Areeiro area came within a hair’s breadth of a red alert, registering 57.0 liters per square meter (mm) in six hours, between 10:30 PM and 4:30 AM. This value was just 3 liters short of the maximum threshold, after 35.9 mm had already accumulated in just three hours.
The records justified the escalation of the weather warning to orange, issued on Saturday night by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) – and in effect until 9:00 am today – due to the imminent occurrence of heavy and persistent rainfall, which ended up having a greater impact on the mountainous regions and the north coast of Madeira Island, where the highest accumulations were concentrated.
At higher altitudes, noteworthy rainfall includes 50.1 mm recorded at Pico do Areeiro (between 00:50 and 06:50) and 45.1 mm at Pico Alto. In Santana, the accumulated rainfall reached 45.0 mm in six hours.
Other locations recorded significant rainfall within the yellow level, such as Ponta de São Jorge (39.0 mm), Ponta do Pargo (32.2 mm) and Santo da Serra (31.7 mm), also in six-hour intervals.
In the one-hour period since Saturday evening, no orange warning levels were reached, but six of the 20 stations in the IPMA network recorded yellow warning levels, notably 18.2 mm in Chão do Areeiro and 15.7 mm in Santana.
Regarding peak intensity, Santana recorded 6.3 mm in just 10 minutes. In Funchal/Observatory, the most significant extreme was 6.4 mm in 10 minutes, around 10:30 PM. Meanwhile, in Chão do Areeiro, 12.8 mm accumulated in 30 minutes, a value also falling within the yellow warning criteria.