Madeira Islands is under orange alert due to strong winds, rain showers and rough sea with 6 meter waves. Today the ferry that links Funchal and Porto Santo did not run the trip and it will probably not run it tomorrow as well. All fishing and touristy boats have stopped operations until the weather gets better which is predicted to be only Saturday, 20th December 2009.

For the mountains the wind will be strong, about 40 to 60 km/hour and with gusts reaching 120 km/hour, so tourists and levada walkers are warned not to go walking or trekking and if driving, be very careful on the roads as this weather is propitious to rock and tree falls.

So if you are a tourist in Madeira, until Saturday we recommend you to spend your days around Funchal, visiting the market place, doing Christmas shopping or visiting museums from which we highlight the Natural History Museum with an interesting collection of "Spiders of Madeira".