Winter in Funchal

In his highly regarded work Noticia sobre o clima do Funchal, Dr F. A. Barral gives a most curious and interesting account of the winter season in this city. We record it in these columns, although we have already touched on the subject in the article Climate:

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The climate of Funchal has a warmer season and a colder one; it has rain, thunderstorms, sometimes strong winds, storms, floods and the leste (hot, dry easterly wind from Africa); and all of this, which does not come every year at a fixed time and season, and does not always last the same length of time, produces notable variations and breaks that supposed uniformity and monotony. The years 1749 and 1750 were extremely dry, according to Heberden. In 1826 it rained much more than in other years. In the year 1834 to 1835 there were more days of rain than is usual, although no proportionally greater quantity of water fell; the rain was finer and more persistent, as in the countries of the North. In 1803 and 1842 there were terrible floods.

In some years the summer is hotter: in 1852 the thermometer in the shade rose in the month of September to 83° (Fahrenheit scale), and in some places to 85°, which is rare. In almost every winter there are days when snow falls in the uplands and some cold is felt. In the winter of 1851 to 1852 no snow fell, while in that of 1852 to 1853 more snow fell than in many previous winters; it was cold, the thermometer dropped below 50° on some nights, and once or twice reached 45°, which is also rare.

It is true that there the seasons do not show the great differences and striking contrasts of climates in higher latitudes, which give a country very different aspects. Madeira, or rather the southern part of Madeira, where Funchal lies, is always a garden. Neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer withers or dries its luxuriant vegetation. Even so, something happens in those different periods of the year called seasons that marks them out clearly: phenomena less pronounced than in other countries, but easily felt by the natives. The Funchal winter may be the London summer, yet the resident there perceives the difference between the two seasons: a lower temperature, colder nights, greater humidity and more frequent rain. For him, all these changes characterise winter, even though the season may seem to the newly arrived Englishman to be his summer, and to the Portuguese from the mainland to be his autumn.

Winter in Funchal is a beautiful season. The temperature is pleasant during the day, and the sky is for the most part clear or only lightly clouded; wind and rain are moderate. The weather is so ordered that it leaves intervals in the day when everyone, even invalids, can go out without discomfort, since the streets dry easily. It is in winter that the excellence of this climate is best appreciated, above all when it is compared with all the other better-known and more sought-after climates. In our opinion, this is the season that gives the island’s climate its great superiority over the others, which in summer could better dispute Madeira’s pre-eminence. If one ever feels cold, it is at dawn or at night, and out of doors, at hours when invalids should not be out walking. Even the days reputed to be the coldest in some years always have many hours of pleasant temperature when invalids can go out. There are houses in Funchal which, because of their exposure or construction, have on those few cold days a lower temperature than one would wish or than is advisable. On such days a fire lit for a few hours with a low flame, especially at night, is pleasant, above all for people from the north. A fire also has the advantage of reducing and dispelling the damp that some houses may have in winter. In this season there is sometimes a north-easterly wind, less humid and of a cool temperature, which gives people a certain degree of useful vigour and energy.

The transition from winter to spring is usually imperceptible and seems a continuation of the same season. Sometimes, however, there are heavy rains in March, lasting for days, with winds from the western quarter. This season is extremely pleasant until the end of May, with the temperature still remaining very moderate. In general it is only in July that a certain number of invalids, mainly English, think they ought to leave the island and return to England; before that time the change may be very strange and harmful’.