Last month, only the coastal region of Alentejo and the western Algarve were in a drought situation, in the weak drought class, according to the IPMA meteorological drought index (PDSI), which also indicates that January was the 2nd wettest since 2000.

At the end of December, more than half (54.6%) of mainland Portugal was in a meteorological drought.

According to the January climatological bulletin, at the end of January, 53.4% ​​of the continent was in the light rain class, 40.3% in the normal class, 6.2% in the light drought class and 0.1% in the moderate drought class.

The institute classifies the meteorological drought index into nine classes, ranging from “extreme rain” to “extreme drought”.

In addition to the drought index, the IPMA Climatological Bulletin indicates that the month of January was classified as very hot in relation to air temperature and very rainy in relation to precipitation.

According to the IPMA, January was the 6th warmest since 1931 (warmest in 1955).

The average maximum air temperature was the 3rd highest value since 1931 (highest in 2015) and the minimum was the 4th highest since 2000.

Regarding the amount of precipitation in January (190.3 millimetres), the IPMA states that it was higher than normal.

During the month of January, high rainfall values ​​were recorded, especially in the period from the 5th to the 8th in the North and Center regions and in the periods from the 19th to the 22nd and 24th to the 29th throughout the territory, with many meteorological stations recording a monthly total around two to three times the average monthly value.