About This Station

This site works with a station, located in the highlands of Funchal (Santo António), at about 500 meters of altitude. The data is obtained every 5 minutes and is updated with the same frequency. To obtain data, the Meteobridge program is used. The station comprises an anemometer, a rain gauge and a temperature / humidity sensor, located in the best position possible to guarantee the accuracy of the data. Sensors of solar radiation and ultra-violet rays are also present.

Funchal (city, county, region and climate)

The island of Madeira after its discovery (or recognition) in 1419 was divided in two captaincies, being the one of Funchal to João Gonçalves Zarco, where it fixed itself with its family and its other companions. The settlement of the island of Madeira began in 1425. The choice of the place for primitive village, was located "in a beautiful valley of singular grove, full of fennel until the sea", as the first chroniclers refer to, was named Funchal , rapidly becoming the main population center of the Archipelago. Between 1452 and 1454, still in the reign of Infante D. Henrique, Funchal had its first charter, which elevated it to the category of village.

The village and primitive municipality of Funchal, comprised the old captaincy of the same name and extended from the Ponta da Oliveira by the south and the west coast of Madeira, until the Tip of Tristão. After half a century this area was remarkably reduced with the establishment of the towns and municipalities of Ponta do Sol and Calheta, being the first created in the year of 1501 and the second approximately of the same time. A little more than 50 years after the creation of the town of Funchal, it was elevated to the category of city in the year 1508. In 1834, the municipality of Funchal extended from the eastern part of the parish of Ponta do Sol to Caniço, it was only in 1835 that he acquired the area he now has, and at the end of the same year he lost Caniço, annexed to the municipality and municipality of Santa Cruz, as well as the parishes of Câmara de Lobos and those that follow him on the side west. The old town of Funchal was originally a very restricted area, and at the end of the fifteenth century "it was limited to the south, by the side of the beach, by a dry stone enclosure, with a couple of equidistant beds and a solid trench of wood, to the west by the São João or São Paulo river, to the north by the lands of Pico dos Frias and Valverde, and to the east it approached the right bank of the Santa Luzia river. "The important nucleus of population that formed from the earliest times on the left bank of the João Gomes river and near the beach was outside the area of what was originally called a village, and was later incorporated into it" (Elucidario Madeirense, 1921). The city of Funchal rises in "amphitheater", formed by loins and valleys until Pico do Areeiro at about 1810 meters of altitude. As we go up, weather changes very often. It has an area of about 76.15 km² and has 111 892 inhabitants (2011). The municipality is subdivided into ten parishes: Imaculado Coração de Maria, Monte, Santa Luzia, Santa Maria Maior, Santo António (where the station is located), São Gonçalo, São Martinho, São Roque, São Pedro and Sé. It is limited to the north by the county of Santana, to the northeast by Machico, to the east by Santa Cruz and to the west by Câmara de Lobos, being bathed by the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

Climatic data from Funchal, collected by the Institute of Meteorology, for the period 1961-1990, in a meteorological station at 58 meters of altitude, indicate that the value of the annual average of the maximum temperature was 21.9º C / Year, and that the value annual average of the minimum temperature was 15.5º C / Year. The average between these values of the annual average of the maximum temperature and the annual average of the minimum temperature was 18.7º C / Year. Thus, this annual average temperature was between 10º C and 20º C, which generically qualifies this climate as temperate. On the other hand, the difference between the average temperatures of the hottest month (September - maximum - 25.7 ° C and minimum - 18.9 ° C) and the coldest (February - maximum - 19.1 ° C and minimum - 12.7 ° C), was lower than 10º C, can characterize it as oceanic. The total annual rainfall was 641 mm / year, compared to this period, so we can rate Funchal to have moderate rainfall. The capital city of the island, it has an average annual relative humidity of 70% (between a minimum of 68% in March / April and a maximum of 73% in June / July). Funchal has approximately 2400 hours of sun per year. The months with the highest insolation were July and August and the lowest ones were January and December. However, in the last few months sun exposure may be above 140 hours. The wind speed may correspond to a moderate wind (calm: 11%), with a frequency that can reach 16% and 17% in the northeast and 17% or 18% in the southwest, according to the same data.

In Madeira Island, there are many microclimates determined by the influence of the sharp relief, from the lowest point to the highest point of 1862 m (Pico Ruivo). The east-west orientation of the central mountain range and the plateaus, with altitudes above 1200 m, perpendicular to the prevailing northeast winds (alísios), determines a protected and sunny south slope, and a more exposed north slope, with reduced insolation, except in some localities near the coast. The range of annual thermal variation is relatively weak in coastal locations, but is steeper at higher peaks. In general terms, according to Machado (1970), the climate of Madeira “is predominantly temperate with oceanic characteristics, ranging from dry to humid and from moderately rainy to overly rainy with increasing altitude. Above 1500 m, however, it becomes cold (although at the limit for tempering) and as for the humidity of the air, it is dry again”.

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