Around 11:00 p.m. this Monday, the meteorologist Jorge Ponte picked up the service cell phone of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) to call the Civil Protection commander in Lisbon. The warning brought the omen of the night that was coming: the radars detected (and the satellite images confirmed it) that, in the last 30 minutes, a line of very intense clouds – scientists call them “cells” – was forming over the Atlantic and heading towards Lisbon, all thickening in altitude. And they were full of rain.
“There should already be moderate to heavy rainfall due to the arrival of the first cell. But in two to three hours, the cells that could form an ocean must enter the continent. As they are gaining activity at this time, we prefer to notify them”, described Jorge Ponte, pointing to a monitor in which green, yellow and orange spots float on a map of continental Portugal: “It is starting to be more serious, but there are more aggressive cells with the southwest convection.
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Source: Observadora
