In an interview with newspaper Diário de Notícias, university professor , Filipe Duarte Santos, a leading Portuguese voice on climate change, dashed suggestions that cold spells are linked to global warming.
At the start of this week, icy temperatures across Europe left more than 20 people dead and blanketed even the Greek islands and southern Italy in snow.
Italy saw ferries and flights cancelled and schools in the south closed on Monday.
At least 10 people died of cold in Poland while night temperatures in Russia plunged to minus 30ºC.
Normally milder Greece witnessed temperatures of minus 15ºC in the north, where an Afghan migrant died of cold last week and roads were closed.
Portugal has also been cooler, with overnight frost and lows close to zero degrees common across most of the country at the start of the week.
The UK was forecast an arctic ‘thundersnow’ blast for the middle of last week.
However, addressing concerns from those who believe the plummeting temperatures are a product of climate change, the leading Portuguese researcher has said this is not the case.
“What characterises global warming is the average temperature throughout the year and for the entire surface of the globe. People forget the word ‘global’ (...) Lower temperatures occur in a particular region of the earth, but the rise in average temperatures is global”, Duarte Santos explained.
Admitting Global Warming does increase the tendency for extreme weather phenomena, the professor said nonetheless this is generally characterised as heat waves rather than cold snaps.
“Cold periods are not characteristic of climate change. For us, in Portugal, drought is worse than cold”, he elaborated.
While thermometers in Portugal are set to remain chilly over the coming days following a dip forecast for the weekend, the country is expected to dodge the deadly freezing temperatures that have blighted other European countries.
“People suffering from the cold is a phenomenon that has always happened. The main cause is being ill-prepared to deal with the situation, such as a lack of housing, and there are population groups, such as the elderly, who are more likely to be vulnerable to the problems caused by winter”, Filipe Duarte Santos said.