sportpix

Summer has arrived with a vengeance here in Hong Kong, and right now it's 34 degrees C outside (in the shade...). There is a nice wind blowing and so the humidity is in the 60s, but this morning when we were dog walking it was in the 80s and later this evening it will shoot up to the 90s. When the wind stops the humidity rockets and stays high and horrible.

The sad thing about this is that it will stay like this until the middle of October, but it July and August it will be even hotter and the humidity will still be crazy high. The only respite we will get is when it rains, and in the middle of summer we pray for rain, but then we get typhoons...

When does summer start in Portugal? Is it burning hot there yet? Is it humid? Is there much difference in the temperature between the geographical areas such as the Algarve and Lisbon? Is it different from one side of the Algarve to the other?

Still no work from Ryanair about the cancelation of our air tickets, but we live in hope. The lousy summer weather here is just one of the reasons we are hoping to relocate to Europe.

toots sweet

Yesterday and today here 1 hour NE of Lisbon,it was a beautiful morning.Fresh cooling breeze. Towards mid day it became quite hot ,mid to late 20's C.
A little humidity,but nothing uncomfortable. Forecast for later is mid 30's. Light cloud overhead.

Loafing Along

Just in from long dog walk over Eastern Algarve Salt Pans - delightful 25ºC with slight breeze off the sea. Portugal weather further North worse it is - rain, cloud , snow in winter and average summers. Our friends in Porto struggle with damp, rainy, cold winters and complain .. Alentejo extremes, hot and dry all summer , cold in winter, Algarve hot in summer , 35ºC + and dry , winters mild , typically 10ºC - 14ºC but feels surprisingly cold for some reason . Always issue of whether it will rain enough . Western Algarve and Alentejo coast obviously Atlantic influence, Eastern Algarve much less so. Humidity rarely an issue .

liveaboard

Very different indifferent regions. Depends on the wind direction.

macliam

Not really true. The Alentejo is the biggest region in Portugal and covers most of the area between Lisbon and the Algarve (which is a relatively narrow coastal strip). It spans the whole country from the Western Coast (Litoral) to the Spanish border. Much of it is fairly flat, but there are high hills in the West, on the Alentejo/Algarve border in the south and on the Spanish frontier. The Litoral tends to be humid in Winter - inland has lower humidity. Generally it is hotter in Summer the further inland you go.... but the hills cause their own anomalies - the highest temperatured tend to be in the Serpa/Moura area. In the hills of the south-west (where I am) it can drop to -3C overnight in Winter and reach 42C in Summer..... but the variance is that in winter, on a -3C night, it can still reach 20+C during the day. it is an area of low rainfall during the summer and microclimates - it can be pouring with rain in the town 15Km away and I don't see a drop.... equally it may not rain from May to October, but when it rains, it rains. My barber has a picture of the last snow in the town..... it looks more like a heavy frost - and that was in the year I was born!!

Red Eric

Northern Correspondent here - nearly as far north as possible. Yes we do get rain (sometimes quite a lot) and clouds but we get plenty of sunshine too, even in winter. Snow below 400m is a rare beast - only ever seen it settle on the ground here once, briefly, in 15 years.

Not sure what an "average summer" is but the summer daily highs round here, around 40km from the coast, frequently top those down south. There is also a rather heavy, oppressive quality to the atmosphere during the summer months - early mornings and evenings after the sun has gone down tend to be cooler and fresher. We get big (20 plus degrees C) swings between daytime highs and night-time lows but once the thermometer starts climbing, so does the sultriness. The summer heat in Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve is much easier to handle on that account, in my opinion. The air always seems much more "breathable" even on a hot day (plus the evenings are balmy more often). I don't think it's humidity as such - I haven't delved into things too far but I read a piece a while back which suggested that it isn't only % humidity that makes the air feel that way.

macliam

Always good to head off to the praia fluvial and cool off when it gets hot....... the one near my FiL was great. It doesn't seem to be such a thing in the Alentejo. I've been in Moura when it hit 43C and it was hot - too hot to want to stay outside much - but bearable, whereas in London, anything above 30C felt like torment

Relative temperature is an odd thing - the most cold and miserable I have ever felt was one Easter in Lisbon..... I don't think the air temperature was that low, but the unheated house, etc. made me feel colder than anything in the UK. Outdoors, the coldest I ever felt was in Montpellier one February - we walked from the Hotel into the centre and, even with gloves, my hands were blue and my cheeks burned. Again, probably not the coldest I've ever experienced according to the thermometer, so there's definitely something else going on.

liveaboard

We very intentionally bought a place 2km from the western algarve coast; it's almost never too hot, rarely very cold, a bit windy for some folks.

In short, the weather here is wonderful.

sportpix

with the wife originating from the West Country the western algarve sounds ideal. Need to get on a plane ...

BillBullock

The coastal plain just south of Moncarapacho but 2 km from the coast is just perfect for us. Far more sunshine than in the hills 5 km to the north and far less rainfall. Retired here 16 years' ago and not moving anywhere else except for holidays, although they've been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

ouriquejan

Not too far from where we used to live BillB.

We found the mould a problem, but this is about 15 years ago. Amazed me that our Portuguese neighbours would, once a year, bleach all the wall, ceilings and re-paint. The houses were obviously not built right in the first place.

We loved the sea breezes, but moved to the Baixo Alentejo and much prefer it. Yes, it's hotter in the summer - but we're on a hill and have killer wind, summer and winter. This house was built to a very high spec, so is quite cool in the hot summer.

I think, in all honesty, it's a life style thing, as to where you want to live. We love it here, but are thinking of maybe moving when we get too old to look after the land. Hopefully a long time yet.

Sunday was way too hot, all of a sudden. Yesterday and today have been 25C in the shade and it's been lovely, spent all day outside, pulling up the triffids we have, pretending to be weeds.