A cold front is due to affect Portugal on Thursday for at least a week with plunging temperatures reaching zero in parts of the country.
A polar air mass sweeping down from Scandinavia is freezing areas not used to being frozen, such as southern Italy and Greece, with snow and ice settling through much of Europe.
According to Portugal’s weather service, “from Thursday continental Portugal will be affected by the passage of a cold front that will lead to a drop in temperatures of between 3°C and 7°C until next week.
According to the weatherman, there will be drizzle from mid-morning in northern regions of Portugal, turning to snow above 1,400 metres in the Serra da Estrela, Montesinho and Montalegre areas.
On Friday, rain will continue up north, with a good chance of snow above 800 metres by the end of the morning.
For the interior north and centre of the country, minimum temperatures will drop below zero in places like Guarda and Bragança (-2 degrees). In Lisbon, the minimum temperature should be around 5 or 6°C.
Portugal will be cold, but nothing like the plunging temperature across much of the rest of Europe which already has claimed over 60 lives.
Poland, for example, has suffered at -20°C in some areas with severe weather conditions in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Belarus and Italy. Romania recorded a low of -32°C.
In Albania, it has snowed for the first time in 32 years. On Tuesday, six people died of cold in Poland and between Monday and Tuesday, three people died in Serbia, including an 88-year-old man and his 64-year-old son who froze to death.
During the same period, three deaths were reported in Macedonia and in Romania there have been "six deaths due to hypothermia" over the last six days.
River ice has also led to the suspension of shipping on the Danube, in Romania, Croatia and Serbia.
In Athens, the Acropolis was covered in snow and most schools were closed. In Greece the authorities decided to transfer 250 refugees living in tents on Lesbos to hotels. A warship was sent to the island to help the evacuation.
The Algarve will see daytime temperatures of between 14°C and 17°C for a week from this Saturday, dropping to 6°C or below at night. Compared to much of Europe, this is positively balmy.
A reader below point out that the Algare temperature forecasts are always for Faro and that a minus temperature can be expected in many of the region's country areas in the week ahead.
