Portugal is facing the region's strongest Atlantic storm since 1842.

[Mark]

After three weeks meandering around the Atlantic Ocean, Leslie is expected to finally crash ashore near Lisbon on Sunday, marking the third time a storm that powerful has made it to the Iberian Peninsula in the past 176 years.

Storm warnings cover Portugal, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere. There is a 70-to-80 percent chance tropical storm winds will reach Lisbon by about midday on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm will make landfall early Sunday, local time.

"Leslie is expected to bring near hurricane-strength winds on Saturday to portions of Portugal as a powerful post-tropical cyclone," Dan Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Hurricane Center, wrote in an analysis. "Tropical-storm strength winds are also likely to affect portions of western Spain."

In addition, Leslie will bring as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain.

"Whether it will be technically a tropical cyclone or not, it is going to be a big storm for them," said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground, an IBM company. "It's kind of unprecedented for them."

https://www.sott.net/article/398183-Portugal-is-facing-the-regions-strongest-Atlantic-storm-since-1842

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