A lorry driver has been killed by a falling tree as Storm Nils tore across western France, cutting electricity to about 900,000 homes and triggering widespread disruption across the Iberian Peninsula.
The storm brought winds of up to 162 kilometres per hour near France’s south west coast, forced Alpine ski resorts to close over avalanche fears, and left roads blocked and flights cancelled. In neighbouring Portugal, a major motorway partially collapsed after a river burst its banks, underlining the scale of damage caused by weeks of relentless rain.
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According to the BBC, the driver died in the Landes region after a tree crashed onto his vehicle. Police said a branch pierced the windscreen. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot paid tribute to the victim and urged the public to “exercise utmost caution when travelling and check with their transport operator before any journey”.
Red alerts were declared in several areas of southern and southwestern France. In the Aude region, 40 roads were declared impassable as gales reached 110 kilometres per hour. Elsewhere, a worker was seriously injured when a tree fell onto his vehicle near Toulouse.
The impact stretched beyond France. In Spain, strong winds and heavy rain caused transport chaos and injuries. Schools were suspended in Catalonia. Authorities in the Basque Country issued a red alert for waves of up to 10 metres along the north west coast. Winds of 148 kilometres per hour were recorded in Alicante.
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In the Barcelona area, four workers were injured while clearing fallen trees, and a pedestrian was hurt when a wall collapsed. Dozens of flights were cancelled at El Prat airport. In western Spain, a woman had to be rescued after her car fell into a sinkhole that opened up on a road near Cáceres.
Portugal has been particularly hard hit after weeks of severe weather. A 10 metre section of the A1 motorway linking Lisbon to Porto collapsed near Coimbra after the Mondego river overflowed and breached a nearby dyke. The stretch had already been closed before it gave way.
Visiting the scene, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said repairs would take weeks. The government says Portugal has received about 20 per cent of its average annual rainfall in just one week. The poor weather has persisted since early January, placing strain on dams, roads, and flood defences.
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“Since the start of January, discharges from dams and reservoirs have been the equivalent of about a year of our country’s water consumption,” Environment Minister Maria Graça Carvalho told Portuguese media.
Authorities are also monitoring the River Tagus closely. Officials said the combined flow from three dams reached 6500 cubic metres per second on Thursday morning, raising fresh concerns about further flooding.
The political fallout has already begun.
Maria Lucia Amaral, Interior Minister resigned earlier this week following criticism of her handling of the worsening conditions, which have left several people dead and caused billions of euros in damage.
Portugal had already faced Storm Kristin, Storm Leonardo, and Storm Marta before the arrival of Nils. While winter storms are not unusual in the region, scientists say extreme weather events on the Iberian Peninsula are becoming more frequent and more intense. Many link the trend to climate change driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions.
