Tropical Storm Chantal (2019) (Blackford)

Tropical Storm Chantal was a unusual tropical storm that made landfall in Portugal at peak intensity as a 70 mph tropical storm on July 26, 2019, the unusual thing about the disturbance is the fact that it remained tropical into France, before degenerating into a post tropical cyclone near Vichy on July 30, 2019. It caused upwards of 15,000 deaths, due to extensive flash flooding in and around Porto, and Lisbon, with flash flooding also occurring in Madrid, Barcelona, Andorra Le Vella, Vichy, Paris, Verdun, Brussels, Luxembourg (in the country of Luxembourg), Frankfurt, Bremen, Hannover, Hamburg and even Berlin. This makes it the second deadliest Atlantic tropical system on record, behind the Great Hurricane of 1780 only.

Meteorological history
On July 10, 2019, the NHC began monitoring a tropical wave that was forecast to develop right off the coast of the Sahara Desert, in unusually warm waters. On July 14, isolated thunderstorm development initiated off the coast of Morroco, and the NHC highlighted a 50% chance of tropical development within 5 days. By July 16, this chance had increased to 90% in 5 days and 40% in 48 hours. On July 20, the NHC noted the system had gained a strong centralized circulation, and thus designated it Tropical Depression Three in the 2 pm outlook, it was forecast to move westward as a tropical depression and diminish by July 24 as it approached the Cape Verde islands, although EURO models showed the storm pulling northward and making landfall in Portugal on either July 25 or 26 as a tropical storm or hurricane.

As the storm gained a even more centralized circulation, and intensified, on July 21 it was named Tropical Storm Chantal as it suddenly pulled northward, as the EURO model suggested. Wind shear and cooler waters began to work against Chantal, and it weakened to a tropical depression early on July 22, which the EURO model did not predict. Many models besides EURO suggested the storm would be absorbed by a cold front or become a extratropical disturbance on July 23 or 24. The storm broadened it's circulation and it lost it's identity early on July 23, however, later that morning, in the 8 am advisory, it was reintroduced as Tropical Depression Chantal, as it's circulation tightened yet again. By the 2 pm advisory, it had re-intensified into a 40 mph tropical storm, which it would remain until the 2 am advisory the next morning, when it was downgraded to a 35 mph tropical depression.

Again, many models showed Chantal diminishing as it faced a hostile environment sometime on July 24 or 25, however, it would stick at a consistent 30-35 mph tropical depression status through July 24, before re-intensifying into a 40 mph tropical storm early on July 25, at this point many European weather agencies had stopped paying attention, and many had let their guard down, thinking it would diminish before it hit Portugal.

As the day continued on July 25, it rapidly intensified into from a 40 to a 50 mph tropical storm in the 8 am outlook, a 50 to a 55 mph tropical storm in the 2 pm outlook, and a 55 to 65 mph tropical storm in the 8 pm outlook, Portuguese news outlets began covering the rapidly intensifying storm that afternoon as it was destined to make landfall somewhere in the Lisbon area, meanwhile highways all over Iberia were essentially shut down due to the amount of traffic as the storm approached, it's likely that if evacuations weren't so widespread, the death toll would've been drastically lower. the NHC forecast cone showed the storm becoming a Category 1 or even possibly a Category 2 hurricane off the coast of Portugal.

By 8 am Lisbon time on July 26, over 250 heat related deaths had been confirmed in the Lisbon area alone due to people trying to evacuate. Rain began to fall at around 10 am Lisbon time as the storm hit it's 70 mph peak. The storm made landfall at 1:36 pm Lisbon time on July 26, and dumped extreme amounts of rainfall, leading to over 1,250 flooding deaths on the highways of Lisbon, and about 2,000 on the highways of Porto. In total, a record-breaking 77.26 inches of rain was recorded at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon on July 26 through July 28, with another 48.63 inches being recorded at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto during the same time-frame. Portuguese infrastructure was completely down by July 27, when the worst of the storm moved into Spain.

The Spanish military prepared for search and rescue operations after hearing of the devastation in Portugal, and early on the afternoon of July 27, the center of the storm crossed the Portuguese border into Spain as a 50 mph tropical storm. At this point, Madrid and Barcelona had sandbags prepared for the very slow moving storm, Adolfo Suarez Madrid–Barajas Airport would see 58.44 inches of rain, and Barcelona – El Prat Airport would see 36.28 inches of rain during the period of July 27 through August 1. The storm weakened to a 40 mph tropical storm as it approached the Franco-Spaniard border on July 29, rapidly weakening to a 30 mph tropical depression that day as it moved over the Pyrenees region. It dumped extreme amounts of rainfall in Andorra, with Andorra seeing a all-time national rainfall record of 28.36 inches of rain in just 20 hours. By this point, the Portuguese Red Cross was deployed to Lisbon and Porto to restore power to those cities, although smaller towns would not see their power restored for as long as until March of 2022.

Spain's power grid had almost completely been knocked out in the central and northern parts of the country, with Andorra also having it's entire power grid knocked out. On July 30, the storm further weakened to a 25 mph tropical depression as it entered southern France, with the NHC issuing it's final advisory on it at 2 pm on July 30, the storm weakened to a 20 mph tropical depression as it began to transition into a post tropical cyclone by 5 pm on July 30 as it neared Vichy, France. Finally, at 8 pm, the storm was observed to have weakened to a 15 mph post tropical cyclone over Vichy, France. It continued to produce rainfall totals of 10-15 inches through France, with the last area with more than 10 inches being observed being Luxembourg, where a rainfall total of 10.18 inches was observed. The storm rapidly accelerated and the storm widely was recognized as no more on August 3 near the German-Polish border.

Aftermath
Civil unrest and looting was reportedly rampant in Portugal and Spain following the storm, with a humanitarian crisis beginning in Iberia through August and September 2019. The storm was officially recognized as the wettest on record in Spring 2020 by the WMO.

Retirement
Due to mass devastation and a very high death toll in the Iberian peninsula, the governments of Spain and Portugal, as well as Andorra, all requested for the name Chantal to be retired, which it was by the WMO in Spring 2020. The name will never again be used for another North Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced by Claire on List V of the Atlantic hurricane naming lists, which was used in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.