Remarkably, on Thursday, snow fell in certain parts of the Algarve region for the first time in recent memory, taking residents in the affected areas completely by surprise.
With the exception of a few flurries that have dusted the high-laying Monchique mountain peaks over recent years, recollections of snowfall elsewhere in the Algarve are practically unheard of.
The last big snowfall along the southern coast is understood to have been in 1954 in the Loulé area.
Unusually, this time reports of snow came from closer to the eastern end of the Algarve, in the Bordeira, São Brás de Alpotel, Manta Rota, and Tavira areas.
The coldest parts of Portugal on Thursday morning were Sabugal, Guarda and Carrazeda de Ansiães, in northern Portugal, and Aljezur in the Algarve, where temperatures dropped to around minus seven degrees Celsius.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for the whole of mainland Portugal, stretching from 9.15am on Thursday morning until 11am on Saturday morning due to the freezing
temperatures.
A steady breeze meant the wind-chill factor felt substantially cooler than temperatures recorded at weather stations.
The Met Office said the cold snap was due to a mass of cold, dry air enveloping the continent.
Thermometers were expected to drop by between four and nine degrees across the board from Wednesday and set in until the weekend.
This prompted the national Civil Protection Unit to also issue a warning for contingency plans to be implemented wherever possible to protect the more vulnerable, such as the homeless, from the worst of the biting cold.
Cities and towns across the country rallied to create emergency overnight accommodation for the homeless and to establish hubs from where hot meals and clothing could be distributed.
In the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, some Metro stations were left open during the night to provide refuge for those sleeping rough.
The Casal Vistoso Pavilion served as the hub from where hot meals, food and clothing were handed out.
Other cities including Porto, Montalegre, Coimbra, Batalha also brought extraordinary measures into force to protect against the snap, which ranged from salting roads to issuing special health advisories.
In Guarda, GNR police officers were instructed to keep an eye out for the elderly who are known to live alone or in rural areas.
“The patrol units give permanent attention to these people [elderly people living alone and isolated], but, with the low temperatures, special action was planned to provide specific support” a Guarda GNR source told Lusa News Agency.
The source added a “district-wide mapping has been carried out of people flagged as vulnerable.”
“These are the people who at this time will get most of our attention because they are sick or because their living arrangements do not have the ideal conditions to protect against the cold temperatures”, the source explained.
The GNR conducts a nation-wide ‘Senior Census’ which last year took place in Guarda between 1 and 30 April and mapped 3,870 elderly citizens living alone or isolated.
Health authorities issued a series of special recommendations for the population in general, advising that homes should be kept at between 18 and 24 degrees Celsius, people should layer-up when outside and meals should be hot and frequent.
It was also urged that special attention be paid when using fires, salamanders or gas-powered heating equipment.
Contingency Plans are usually brought into force when at least two consecutive nights’ cold is forecast, at temperatures of below three degrees Celsius.
The forecast is that that the chilly weather would remain until around Saturday afternoon, when the arrival of cloudy skies could force overnight temperatures closer to double figures.