Winds

Observations of wind direction made at Ponta de São Lourenço from 1901 to 1909 show that the wind that prevails there most throughout the year is the NE, followed by the NNE, N, NW, SW and E. The first of these winds blows from mid-April until the end of October, although it may also appear at other times. It is generally not felt directly in the city, though its presence can be recognised by the disturbance it produces on the surface of the sea outside the bay.

The N wind sometimes blows with great force in winter, and it is this wind that brings the snow and hail that appear in the mountains during that season. The W, NW and SW winds bring a large proportion of the rain, the last two being sometimes very violent in the first months of the year. Winds from the quadrants between SW and SE by way of S sometimes cause heavy seas in the bay, and the humidity of the atmosphere in Funchal is then higher.

Dr Barral says that if we examine what happens in the different seasons, we find winds from N to E prevailing in summer and autumn, and less so in winter, and winds from SW to NW more in spring and autumn, and also in winter, though no very fixed rule can be laid down on this point.

Madeira sometimes experiences, particularly in summer, a hot, dry wind which the inhabitants call the leste (hot, dry easterly wind from Africa), and which generally lasts from 1 to 3 days. We shall speak of this wind, which appears to originate on the coast of Africa, in the appropriate place, as well as of the land and sea breezes (land breeze (terral) and embate (daytime sea breeze)), which follow one another every day at almost regular hours.

At Poiso (‘resting place’), according to Mr Teles de Meneses, the NE, N and NW winds prevailed from July to November 1894, and at Areeiro (‘sand pit’) the N, NNE and NW winds from June to October 1895.

The NE also prevails on Porto Santo, followed by the N, ENE, NNE and E. In 1901 the NE was the most frequent wind from May to October, and the ENE blew from March to November, even becoming dominant in that month and in April, July and August. The N was very frequent from February to July and in November, while the E prevailed in December and January. The NW blew mainly from December to March, in November, and from January to May.

By consulting the articles cited above, one can compile a long list of the authors who, at various times, have written on the climate of Madeira. This already vast bibliography was recently enriched by a remarkable study by the illustrious naval officer and academician Hugo de Lacerda. Written in French, it was published in 1936 by order of the Autonomous General Council (Junta Geral Autónoma) of Funchal under the title Le Climat de Madère, ébauche d’une étude comparative, and it is the most valuable work on the subject ever to have appeared in print. The island’s delegation of the tourism department very wisely had this study translated into English. The task was entrusted to the learned teacher Dr Alberto Figueira Jardim, and the translation appeared in 1938 under the title The Climate of Madeira With a comparative study.

We do not wish to close these lines on the climate of Madeira without placing on record here a remarkable article by Dr Armindo Narciso. In it this distinguished practitioner of the medical sciences addresses some new aspects of a subject that is always of great moment for our archipelago. He clears up doubts and lays down principles that should be of the greatest use to all who wish to find their way with complete confidence in any discussion of the matter, or in whatever publicity may be undertaken concerning the mildness and therapeutic qualities of this island’s incomparable climate.

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Writers on the subject, even the most learned and respected, do not agree on the therapeutic action of oceanic climates, that is, the climates of the open sea, also called pelagic climates. This disagreement is more marked among continental authors than among the English. The English, being islanders and well travelled, know the sea better.

The main cause of this disagreement is that a great many climatologists regard these climates as all alike, when in truth they are influenced by local factors, just as coastal and inland climates are, and these factors vary the meteorological formula of the climate.

From what has been set out, it follows that the climate of Madeira is a special oceanic climate, for it has Mediterranean characteristics even though the island lies in the middle of the Atlantic. Yet this climate with Mediterranean characteristics has its own local ‘nuance’. The winter there is even milder than on the European Mediterranean coast, with an equally temperate and luminous atmosphere, but with slightly higher humidity.

There, the cold, damp and stormy north winds break against and are dried out by the mountains that shelter the city of Funchal. The hot, dry winds from North Africa arrive cooled and moistened by their passage over a stretch of sea, short though it is, and they are one of the factors that make the island winter so mild.

Only in summer do these African winds reach the island dry and hot, and even then only intermittently; one need only climb into the mountains, or cross to the island’s other coast, to escape their assault.

Thus this climate lacks the most exciting factors of the Mediterranean climate: dry air currents, at times violent and of extreme temperature, now extremely cold, now extremely hot, such as the Mistral and the Sirocco, and all the winds of the same origin and kinship.

In Madeira there are only factors of gentle stimulation: a pure, very transparent atmosphere and great luminosity. Moreover, the gentle stimulation of these factors is further softened by factors with a sedative effect, such as the great calm, the uniform warmth and the humidity which, though low, is nonetheless slightly higher than that of most Mediterranean climatic resorts.

This climate of Madeira is therefore not one of marked stimulation but of slight stimulation, indeed more tonic than stimulating. Its stimulating action is felt on the vegetative functions, its tonic action on the nervous functions. Thus, there, digestion and nutrition are stimulated and the nervous system is toned.

The well-being and relief that the patient feels on arriving in Madeira is a kind of euphoria, but a gentle euphoria, without excitement, without insomnia, without fever. So, rather than being excited, the patient feels calm and regains the joy of living he had lost. He puts on weight, gains strength and enters upon a new life.

The British were the first to take advantage of this climate, finding that it has considerable therapeutic properties in the treatment of the overworked, the exhausted, the weak and debilitated, the undernourished, those entering upon consumption, convalescents and those with tuberculosis, not excluding pulmonary cases. And so, for more than a century, a great multitude of invalids from all over Europe, but chiefly from the British Isles, has flocked to Madeira every winter.

The proportion of pulmonary tuberculosis sufferers among these invalids was very large, and the results they obtained were so beneficial that throughout the 19th century Madeira was the great resort for lung patients.

The offensive that the continental phthisiologists launched against the sea at the beginning of the present century drove the tuberculous away from that island. Today Madeira has ceased to be a sanatorium resort and has become a resort for rest, where the English, sick and healthy alike, spend the winter.

But is there any reason for this to be so? Is the climate of Madeira really harmful to lung patients? Clearly not. This prohibition arose from a misunderstanding that began on the European continent and later spread even to the British Isles, although some English phthisiologists still advise their lung patients to go to Madeira, as was common practice in the 19th century.

This misunderstanding stemmed from the confusion that has generally been made between the coastal maritime climate and the oceanic climate, and from the belief, as I have already said, that all maritime climates are alike. Now, in the coastal maritime climate as in the oceanic maritime climate, the elements harmful to pulmonary tuberculosis sufferers are high humidity and violent wind. It is from these that the lively, violent maritime climate derives. When these elements are joined by the alternation of sea winds with land winds, which are dry and of very variable temperature, the maritime climate becomes more violent still.

The climate of Madeira is entirely free of these aggressive factors, and so nothing prevents its use in the treatment of lung patients. It is true, and not surprising, that not all pulmonary tuberculosis sufferers are in a condition to benefit from a stay on that island. But the same is true of going to the mountains. The climate of Madeira, like the Alpine climate, is contraindicated for lung patients in advanced consumption with inadequate circulatory and digestive systems: highly feverish patients, those with diarrhoea, those with tachycardia.

But it is indicated for patients who are still vigorous, with a sound heart and digestive tract, able to bear its tonic, mildly stimulating action. And while the mountain climate, with its cold, dry, rarefied atmosphere, is preferable for patients with softening lesions and cavities, because it dries the lesions and reduces expectoration, the Madeiran climate, with its mild, slightly humid atmosphere, is superior to that of the mountains for patients with a heavy cough, congestion, and respiratory capacity reduced by extensive fibrous lesions, who are very sensitive to chills and to changes in temperature: it calms the cough and the dyspnoea and reduces congestion and the frequency of haemoptysis.

It is evident that patients sent to Madeira must still have the reserve of energy needed to benefit from the action of that island climate. But it should be noted that this reserve of energy need not be greater than in patients who go to high-altitude resorts; indeed, children and adults over 40 years of age who can benefit from a climatic cure tolerate the climate of Madeira better than the altitude climate.

There is therefore no reason to exclude all tuberculosis patients, absolutely, from the climate of Madeira. What is needed is to know how to choose those who can benefit there and to exclude the rest. This, moreover, is the secret of success in all therapy, whether surgical, medicinal, hydrological or climatic.