Thermometers in the capital plunged to 1.9º C early this weekend and with the shortest day of the year nearly over, the coldest day of the year hit Lisbon with a shock as the 1.9ºC recorded was the lowest temperature for two decades in the capital.
"In December 1994, 1.3C was recorded," according to the Portuguese Institute of Meteorology.
Before that, the coldest temperature in the capital was in February 1956 when Lisbon’s shivering locals shuffled around in a sub-zero -1.2C.
The cold air, combined with fog, brought down the temperatures during the early hours in various locations around the capital with the municipality of Almada hitting zero, but the city of Guarda as ever was the coldest place in the country with -3.1C recorded in an area town noted for its freezing winter time offer.
Guarda is the highest city in the country and the maximum today crawled up to just 7.6 degrees.
In Lisbon, the temperature reached 12.4 C, in Oporto they basked in 17.4C and back in Faro the sun shone to increase the temperature to 14.6C as recorded at the airport.
There’s a long period of low night and day temperatures ahead, relatively speaking as many tourists in the Algarve for Christmas seem able happily to walk around in T-shirts.
