Storm Charles floods Iberia, scrubs 183 Lisbon flights, then swamps Cannes

Storm Charles landed first on Madeira, then marched onto the Portuguese mainland on 11 November. Funchal airport clocked a wind gust of 84.5mph (136 km/h), while rain piled up 355mm in just 12 hours. Lisbon scrapped 183 flights on Wednesday — roughly a third of its normal daily traffic — and Madrid Barajas cancelled another 155.

From Iberia the system tracked north-east through southern France, flooding parts of Cannes and setting off rock falls that closed roads along the French Riviera. Italy's weather service answered with a red rainfall warning, its highest level, for the stretch running from Tuscany to Venezia. Forecast models cited by the Guardian point to another 100mm falling widely across Italy and the Balkans, with totals near 200mm likely in the mountains.

Canada is getting hammered on the other flank. Successive rounds of heavy rain and strong winds have caused flooding and landslides across British Columbia for more than a week. Between Monday and Friday last week, over 400,000 customers lost power. The weekend added 135,000 more outages, plus downed trees, flooded roads and landslides.

Sunday's gusts hit 72.1mph (116 km/h) on Herbert Island and 60mph (96 km/h) at Victoria international airport. On Wednesday, heavy rain warnings went up for Vancouver Island and the southern coastal areas as multiple stations logged rainfall above 100mm. The River Forecast Centre issued flood warnings across the south coast the same day, flagging a rising risk of flash flooding and landslides.

There's no clean break coming. Another area of low pressure is expected to bring torrential rain and strong winds to the same corner of British Columbia this weekend, with more than 100mm likely across central and southern Vancouver Island on Saturday and gusts above 60mph on the cards.