April 25th holiday will be a cloudy and colder “starting day” | Meteorology

It is the return of Winter in the middle of a Spring that has been more like Summer — and it will happen precisely this Thursday, the day on which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship and achieved democracy in Portugal. Meteorological information from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) predicts a drop in temperatures on the holiday, cloudy skies in almost the entire country and even rain in some places.

The first signs of a change in the weather will appear from this Wednesday, with the sky being covered by high clouds in mainland Portugal and Madeira; and with the Azores archipelago recording a partially cloudy sky. The maximum temperatures on April 24th, however, will be similar to this Tuesday: Lisbon and Faro will reach 24ºC, Porto will reach 21ºC, Ponta Delgada will reach 18ºC (2ºC less than this Tuesday) and Funchal will register 26ºC (1ºC more than on Tuesday).

But on Thursday, the day when the 25th of April celebrations take to the streets across the country, the weather will be less benevolent. Clouds will definitely take over the national sky and temperatures will drop almost everywhere: Faro will remain at 24ºC and both Funchal and Ponta Delgada will continue to have the highs of recent days, but the temperature in Lisbon should not exceed 19ºC and in Porto it will drop to 17ºC. There is even a forecast of rain in two districts: Braga and Aveiro.

Weather forecasts become more accurate as the days under analysis approach, but Márcio Santos, a meteorology enthusiast who follows the evolution of the weather on the “Meteo Trás os Montes” page, suggested this Tuesday that “we return to the Winter” in the coming days: “They could be maps from February, but they are for the end of April and beginning of May”, he described, publishing images that reflect the atmospheric pressure and precipitation levels expected until the end of the first week of next month .

If you’re going to bridge and were hoping to enjoy the beach, you might still have time to turn your compass to planes at other altitudes: next Friday, April 26th, the drop in temperatures and cloud cover could even culminate in snowfall at the highest points of Serra da Estrela from the end of the afternoon.

According to the IPMA, the day will be “generally very cloudy, with little cloud in the South until early morning”, with “rain or showers on the coast of the North and Center regions, gradually extending to the rest regions and being generally weak in the South region”; and with the possibility of thunderstorms in the North region at the end of the day. In the Azores, “periods of very cloudy skies with good clears” are expected and, in Madeira, very cloudy skies — but easing in the afternoon — and a slight rise in temperature.

In mainland Portugal, the scenario will be similar on Saturday — the last day for the IPMA to make available, until the first few minutes of this Wednesday, a descriptive weather forecast on the continent. Expect “generally very cloudy skies, gradually decreasing in cloudiness, from north to south, from the end of the morning”, showers that will also decrease in intensity from the afternoon onwards (snowfall in Serra da Estrela should continue – until mid-morning) and thunderstorms.