Meteorological stations

The Funchal meteorological station, set up in the Fort of São Lourenço (St Lawrence), began operating in January 1865 under the direction of the late military engineer António Pedro de Azevedo. It stands at an altitude of 21.2 m and is subordinate to the Infante Dom Luís Observatory, with which it communicates by telegraph every day. Observations are made at 6 and 9 a.m., at 3 and 5 p.m. and at 9 p.m., the last of these being optional (1921).

Before this timetable came into force, observations were made at 7 and 9 a.m., at noon, at 3 p.m. and at 9 p.m.

In 1901 a room was built to house the station’s records, and in 1913 a terrace was built over the station, reached by an outside staircase. Both improvements were carried out on the recommendation of the 1st assistant, Colonel Eduardo Agostinho Pereira, who died on 22 September 1918.

The Funchal meteorological station has a barograph, a psychrograph, an anemograph, an Adie barometer, an August psychrometer, maximum and minimum thermometers, an evaporimeter, a rain gauge, etc. The station usually supplies the press each day with a bulletin giving the wind direction, the state of the sky, the pressure, the temperature and the amount of rain that has fallen in 24 hours (1921).

Near Pico do Areeiro (‘sand-pit peak’), at an altitude of 1700 metres above sea level, a wooden house was built in 1895 to serve as a meteorological station and as living quarters for the observers. This establishment, however, which cost the State some 5 contos de réis (conto: one million réis), never came into operation, owing to the indifference with which governments and administrative bodies generally regard services of a scientific nature.

The house, which was in the charge of the Public Works Department (Direção das Obras Públicas), was handed over to the Madeira Agricultural Board (Junta Agrícola) on 13 August 1913 so that a meteorological station could be installed there. When that body was abolished, it passed into the possession of the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito). The ministerial order authorising the transfer of the Areeiro (‘sand pit’) building to the Agricultural Board is dated 19 April 1913.

The tower that held the compartment for the meteorological instruments, reached by an outside staircase, was blown down by the great gales of 25 and 26 February 1920.

The foregoing is a verbatim transcription of what appears on p. 326 of vol. II of the first edition of this Elucidário. To it we can now add the following valuable information, kindly supplied to us by the present director of the Funchal Meteorological Station, António Feliciano de Castilho, which thus expands the earlier data already known.

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The former Post now has the status of a Meteorological Observatory. It is still housed in the São Lourenço Palace, but is on the point of being moved to a building of its own. Its equipment and functions have been considerably expanded. It is headed by a first assistant of the Infante Dom Luís Observatory and has technical oversight of all the other stations and posts in the archipelago. The present head of the Observatory is First Assistant António Feliciano de Castilho.

Its instruments today consist of an Adie barometer, a barograph, a psychrometer, a hygrograph, a thermograph, a rain gauge and a recording rain gauge, a maximum and a minimum thermometer, an ordinary thermometer and a maximum solar-temperature thermometer, an anemograph, a heliograph, two solarigraphs, a solarimeter and an evaporimeter.

Observations are made at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 5 p.m. to determine temperature, humidity, wind, pressure, sunshine, the state of the weather, etc. Besides the Funchal station, we also have the following:

Areeiro

The Areeiro meteorological station stands near Pico do Areeiro at an altitude of 1,610 metres. A house had already been built on this site in 1895 to serve as a post and as quarters for the staff in charge of the service, but for various reasons it never came into operation (see Areeiro). In November 1936 a temperature and rain-gauge post began operating there, supplying data on rainfall and temperature. In December 1939 this post was enlarged and equipped with the following instruments: a barometer, a barograph, a psychrometer, a maximum and a minimum thermometer, a rain gauge, a wind vane and an anemometer. Observations were made at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., collecting data on pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, visibility and the development of the weather. In January 1942 observations were changed to 6 a.m., 12 noon and 5 p.m. Because of its importance, this station is about to be installed in a building of its own and to become part of the international service.

Encumeada de São

Vicente, Santana, Lugar de Baixo and Monte Sanatorium: these stations, set up in June 1941, January 1942, June 1941 and June 1941 respectively, make three observations a day, at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 5 p.m., collecting the following data: temperature, humidity, rainfall, visibility, evaporation, and wind direction and speed. For this purpose they are equipped with maximum and minimum thermometers, a psychrometer, a thermohygrograph, a rain gauge, an evaporimeter and a wind vane. At the Monte Sanatorium there is also a heliograph, which supplies data on sunshine. Both the Encumeada and the Santana stations had already been operating as temperature and rain-gauge posts since December 1938.

Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’)

This station, on the island of the same name beside the radio-telegraph station, was set up in July 1941 by Manuel Melquíades Alarques, then in charge of the Funchal post, and initially made two observations, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. It has the same instruments as the preceding stations and supplies the same data. Its observation times are the same as those of the others, at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 5 p.m.

There are also the temperature and rain-gauge posts of Madalena do Mar, Queimadas, Ribeira Brava and Santo da Serra, all set up between November 1936 and December 1938.

In addition to these, we have the rain-gauge posts of Caramujo, Machico, Montado do Pereiro, Ponta do Pargo, Porto Moniz, Rabaçal, Ribeiro Frio, Santa Cruz, Santo António, Canhas, Bica da Cana, the Paul da Serra and São Vicente. Of these posts the oldest is that of Santa Cruz, set up in November 1936, and the most recent is that of São Vicente, set up in May 1945.

All the data from the meteorological services of Madeira are published monthly in the monthly summary of the Infante D. Luís Central Meteorological Observatory (Observatório Central Meteorológico do Infante D. Luís) in Lisbon, in the weather report of the Jornal das Frutas da Madeira and in the Boletim Mensal do Funchal. Every year, all these data appear in the Anais do Observatório Central. The Funchal Observatory publishes a daily bulletin containing the reports from the stations of Funchal, Arieiro, the Sanatorium, Santana, Lugar de Baixo and Porto Santo, and from the post at Santo da Serra.

All these stations and posts form part of the National Climate Service (Serviço Nacional de Clima), which is run by the Central Meteorological Observatory of Lisbon, attached to the Faculty of Sciences. Its Director since 1937 has been Dr Herculano Amorim Ferreira, full professor at the same Faculty.

The present state of the Meteorological Services of Madeira is owed to the great impetus given to the National Climate Service by the present Director of the Central Observatory, who came to Madeira in June 1938 solely to study the needs of this Service. With the same aim, Dr Amaro Monteiro, Head of the Climate Services of the Central Observatory, also visited Funchal in July 1941. Many of these stations are fitted with equipment bought by the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito), under the distinguished presidency of Dr João Abel de Freitas, and are in the charge of the staff of the Agricultural Services, a department headed by the agronomist Maurílio Ferraz e Silva. The Delegation of the National Fruit Board (Junta Nacional das Frutas), then directed by the agronomist António Teixeira de Sousa, also set up some of the first temperature and rain-gauge posts, which were later handed over to the Directorate of Agriculture.

Also worthy of note is the selfless and most valuable work of Dr João d’Almada, now deceased, and Vice-Admiral Hugo C. de Lacerda Castelo Branco.’