Mid-January, a flat in Lisbon. Outside, it is 15 °C, the sky is blue, the café terraces are full. Inside, the living-room thermometer reads 13 °C, and you are working in a puffer jacket with a hot-water bottle on your lap. Almost every newcomer discovers this paradox in their first winter. The climate in Portugal is one of the most pleasant in Europe. But it does not look quite like the postcard, and it varies enormously from one region to another.
Here, with IPMA figures to back it up, is what the weather is really like, from the Minho to the Azores.
What is the climate in Portugal like, in a nutshell?
The country has a Mediterranean-type climate under strong Atlantic influence: dry summers, mild and rainy winters. Two major dividing lines run through it. The first separates the North, cooler and wetter, from the South, hotter and drier. The second sets the coast, softened by the ocean, against the interior, where summers scorch and winters bite.
The table below, taken from the 1991-2020 climate normals of IPMA, the Portuguese weather institute, gives the orders of magnitude. The values are rounded.
| Station | January (min / max) | August (min / max) | Rain per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ponte de Lima (Minho) | About 4 / 14 °C | About 14 / 29 °C | About 1,600 mm |
| Porto | About 6 / 14 °C | About 16 / 25 °C | About 1,150 mm |
| Bragança (Trás-os-Montes) | About 0 / 9 °C | About 14 / 30 °C | About 780 mm |
| Guarda (inland Centre) | About 2 / 7 °C | About 14 / 26 °C | About 960 mm |
| Coimbra | About 5 / 15 °C | About 16 / 29 °C | About 870 mm |
| Lisbon | About 8 / 14 °C | About 19 / 29 °C | About 720 mm |
| Évora (Alentejo) | About 5 / 14 °C | About 16 / 34 °C | About 600 mm |
| Faro (Algarve) | About 8 / 16 °C | About 20 / 29 °C | About 455 mm |
| Funchal (Madeira) | About 14 / 20 °C | About 21 / 27 °C | About 575 mm |
| Ponta Delgada (Azores) | About 13 / 18 °C | About 20 / 26 °C | About 990 mm |
As for sunshine, IPMA's older normals (1971-2000) give about 3,000 hours of sunshine a year in Faro, 2,800 in Lisbon, 2,700 in Évora, 2,400 in Porto and 1,700 in Ponta Delgada. For the weather in Portugal on any given day, IPMA's yellow, orange or red warnings (wind, rain, heat, wildfires) are the reference.
What is the weather like in the North: Minho, Porto and Trás-os-Montes?
The Minho, on the border with Galicia, is green Portugal: the Portugal of vinho verde vineyards, granite houses and rivers. That green comes at a price: Ponte de Lima gets about 1,600 mm of rain a year, more than twice as much as Lisbon. Summers are nonetheless hot in the valleys, with highs close to 29 °C in August.
Porto and the northern coast live to the rhythm of the Atlantic: about 1,150 mm of rain a year, grey and damp winters, and mild summers, around 25 °C, when sea mist sometimes covers the coast in the morning.
To the east, Trás-os-Montes has an almost continental climate. The Portuguese sum up the region with a saying: nove meses de inverno e três de inferno, nine months of winter and three of hell. It is barely an exaggeration: in Bragança, January lows hover around 0 °C, with about fifty days of frost a year, and August highs come close to 30 °C.
What is the climate like in central Portugal and Lisbon?
The central coast, from Aveiro to Leiria, resembles the North but a little drier. Coimbra, inland, has hotter summers (about 29 °C in August) and cool winter nights. In the interior, altitude changes everything. Guarda, the highest city in the country, barely gets above 7 °C in the afternoon in January and freezes about thirty days a year. Snow falls there some winters, as it does on the nearby Serra da Estrela, the highest point of mainland Portugal.
Lisbon enjoys one of the most balanced climates: about 14 to 15 °C during the day in January, about 29 °C in August, and about 720 mm of rain concentrated between October and April. In summer, the nortada, the north wind that blows along the west coast, cools the afternoons. But heatwaves are increasingly frequent, and the Lisbon station has already recorded 44 °C. A few kilometres away, Sintra and its hills are noticeably cooler, damp and often shrouded in mist.
How hot does it get in the Alentejo and the Algarve?
The Alentejo is the country's oven. In Évora as in Beja, average August highs are above 33 °C, with more than 80 days a year at 30 °C or more. Peaks above 45 °C have already been measured there. Winters are cool, with a few frosts, and it rains about 550 to 600 mm a year. In summer, wildfire risk is part of daily life.
The Algarve is the sunny South, sheltered from the north wind by its mountains. In Faro, about 16 °C in the afternoon in January, about 29 °C in August, and barely 455 mm of rain a year, so much so that the region suffers repeated droughts. The west, around Sagres, is windier and cooler; the east, towards Vila Real de Santo António, hotter. To see what that means day to day, our guide to living in the Algarve covers the towns and life out of season.
What is the climate like in Madeira and the Azores?
Madeira lives up to its nickname, the island of eternal spring, at least on its south coast. In Funchal, temperatures vary little: about 20 °C during the day in January, 27 °C in August, never any frost. But the north of the island is rainier, and the high ground gets mist and cold. Our guide to living in Madeira explains these microclimates.
The Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic, have a mild, humid oceanic climate. In Ponta Delgada, winter stays around 17 to 18 °C in the afternoon and summer rarely goes above 26 °C. On the other hand, it rains about 990 mm a year, sunshine is scarcer (about 1,700 hours a year) and the weather changes several times a day. Locals like to say you live all four seasons in a single day there. The humidity, for its part, never goes away.
What is the sea temperature in Portugal?
This is one of the surprises of the climate in Portugal: the Atlantic is cool, even in August. On the west coast, the nortada pushes surface water out to sea, and colder deep water rises near the shore. This is what oceanographers call upwelling. According to IPMA, the water was, for example, around 18 °C in June 2019 on the west coast and barely above 19 °C in early July, values that were then above normal. From Viana do Castelo to Cascais, swimming therefore takes a little courage.
On the south coast of the Algarve, sheltered from this phenomenon, the sea is noticeably warmer, especially in the east, towards Tavira and the Spanish border: the water there often goes above 20 °C at the height of summer. In Madeira, the water stays mild all year round, around 18 °C in winter and 22 to 23 °C at the end of summer.
Is it cold inside Portuguese homes in winter?
Yes, and it is the great unspoken truth about the climate in Portugal. Many homes were built for a mild climate, without insulation, with single glazing and without central heating. The result: in winter, it is often colder inside than outside in the middle of the day, and the damp makes mould appear on the walls.
European figures confirm it. According to Eurostat, in 2023 about 21% of people living in Portugal said they could not keep their home adequately warm, twice the European Union average (about 11%). The proportion has fallen since, to about 16% according to the most recent data published by Pordata, but it remains among the highest in Europe.
A few reflexes before you sign a lease:
- Look at the energy rating (certificado energético) shown on the listing, from A+ to F.
- Ask how the home is heated: reversible air conditioning or a heat pump changes your life; an oil-filled radiator is expensive to run.
- Check for double glazing (vidros duplos) and the orientation: a south-facing flat (virado a sul) gains several degrees.
- Plan for a dehumidifier, especially in the North, on the coast and on ground floors.
Our guide to renting a flat in Portugal lists the questions to ask the landlord, and our article on electricity and internet in Portugal helps you choose a suitable energy contract. The climate in Portugal is enjoyed on a terrace ten months out of twelve; the other two, you prepare for it.