January was the 10th consecutive month with precipitation below normal, it noted. However, no part of the mainland was at the end of the month in a situation of extreme drought, whereas at the end of December 6.4% had been.

According to the bulletin posted on the IPMA website on Tuesday, at the end of January 55.6% of mainland Portugal was in severe drought, 39.9% in moderate drougth and 4.5% in slight drought.

At the end of December, 58.3% of the mainland was facing severe drought, 29.1% moderate drought, and 5.6% slight drought.

The mean maximum temperature in January was 13.79 degrees Celsius - higher than normal. However, the average value of minimum air temperature, at 4.30%, was lower than normal.

“During the month of January, the levels of mean air temperature presented great variability," IPMA said in a statement, citing unusually high minimum temperatures on 3 and 4 January and an unusually lower one on 15 January.

Maximum temperatures were also unusually high from 28 to 31 January, it said.

As for precipitation, IPMA stated that January was dry, with an average total for the mainland of 76.5 millimetres, around 65% of normal. It noted that, in the past 15 years, only in five of these was average precipitation in January above normal.