The night/early morning of this Saturday, October 21st, put an end to the (long) cycle of 127 consecutive tropical nights (nights in which the minimum temperature does not drop below 20ºC) recorded on Madeira Island. June 15th was the last time that minimum air temperatures, in all 20 IPMA climatological stations in the Region, had registered values below 20ºC.
On Thursday night, still during the Spring Equinox, the highest minimum temperature on the official IPMA network was 19.8ºC, recorded in Funchal/Lido, Ponta do Sol/Lugar de Baixo, and Porto Moniz. From the following day, June 16th, and until this Friday, October 20th, in some of the climatological stations – especially along the coastline, with a greater incidence in Funchal, Porto Moniz and Ponta do Sol – were Minimum temperatures above 20ºC are always recorded. Cycle interrupted today with the highest minimum falling to 19.8ºC, in Ponta do Sol/Lugar de Baixo. Hence the obvious conclusion that between the 16th of June and the 20th of October (127 days), tropical nights occurred daily (even if occasionally in different places).
By location/climatological season, Funchal/Lido stands out from the others, with the longest sequence of uninterrupted tropical nights. At this station located in the western part of the city, daily air temperature records prove that the minimum daily temperature was always above 20ºC between the 21st of June (first day of summer) and the 20th of October (almost a month after the beginning of autumn), for a total of 122 consecutive days of tropical nights. In the early hours of this Saturday the minimum had already dropped to 19.6ºC.
In this cycle of more than four months, always with tropical nights, it should be noted that the highest minimum air temperature was recorded just over a week ago. More precisely in the hot morning of October 12th. On that ‘equatorial’ night the thermometer did not drop from 26.7ºC, in Funchal/Lido. Equally significant was the minimum temperature recorded in Porto Moniz (26.3ºC) and in Funchal/observatory (25.6ºC).
This cycle of consecutive tropical nights may have been the longest ever recorded in the Madeira Archipelago.