Madeira weather by monthFunchal, the north coast, the mountains and the sea

Official data: air and sunshine read on 9 October 2026; sea checked on 11 October 2026. Temperatures and rain are IPMA’s 30-year normals for Funchal; sunshine is averaged from IPMA readings published by DREM; sea temperature is from NOAA OISST v2.1, 2001–2020 [22]. These are long-term averages, not a forecast.

Madeira’s weather depends more on where you are than on the month. On the south coast, Funchal’s average daytime high only moves between 19.9 °C in February and 26.8 °C in August, and the summer is almost dry [1]. The rain falls from October to March, and it falls hardest on the mountains and the north side of the island, which get two to four times as much as Funchal [7][9]. So the table below is the weather you get if you base yourself on the south coast; the sections after it show the rest of the island.

Sea data, checked 11 October 2026: we calculated monthly averages from NOAA OISST v2.1 for 2001–2020 at 32.625° N, 16.875° W, offshore from Funchal [22]. We averaged each year’s daily values within each month, then averaged those 20 monthly means. The 0.25° grid combines satellite and in-water observations; it represents offshore surface water, not a reading at a beach or pool. These are historical averages, not a forecast. Dataset method: [5].

Funchal weather by month

Month	High °C	Low °C	Rain mm	Rainy days	Sun h/day	Sea °C
January	20.0	14.3	67.1	6.2	5.6	18.9
February	19.9	13.9	72.4	5.5	6.2	18.2
March	20.6	14.3	62.3	5.8	6.8	18.0
April	21.0	14.9	45.2	4.7	6.9	18.5
May	22.0	16.2	27.2	3.3	7.1	19.4
June	23.7	18.2	7.8	1.0	6.4	21.0
July	25.4	19.7	1.7	0.3	7.5	22.4
August	26.8	20.7	1.3	0.4	8.2	23.5
September	26.6	20.4	23.1	3.1	6.9	23.8
October	25.2	19.2	91.2	7.0	6.4	23.0
November	22.8	17.0	80.3	7.3	5.8	21.5
December	21.0	15.5	94.8	8.6	5.1	19.9

Sources and periods, because they differ by column. High, Low, Rain mm and Rainy days are IPMA’s 1991–2020 normal for Funchal/Observatório, a station 58 m above sea level; “High” and “Low” are mean daily maximum and minimum, and a rainy day is a day with at least 1 mm [1]. Sun is the average of IPMA’s monthly sunshine hours at the same station for 2012–2025, as published by DREM, divided by the number of days in the month [4]. Sea is our monthly average of NOAA OISST v2.1 offshore surface temperatures for 2001–2020 [22]; the calculation and grid point are described above.

Three things the table shows that a single “Madeira average” hides:

• Winter is mild, not warm. Daytime highs stay around 20 °C from December to March, and nights drop to about 14 °C [1]. The IPMA normal has no day below 0 °C at this station in any month [1].
• June is the cloudiest summer month. Funchal averaged 6.4 hours of sun a day in June, less than in March, and 8.2 in August [4]. Three of the 14 Junes in the series had under 165 hours of sun [4].
• The sea lags the air. The water is warmest in September (23.8 °C) and still 23.0 °C in October, when the rain has already returned [22]. It is coolest in March, at 18.0 °C [22].

September to November with the lifeguard dates, trail changes and events: Madeira in October and autumn.

Madeira in winter

November to March is the reason most people look up Madeira’s weather. On the south coast it is about 20 °C by day, 14–17 °C at night, with 5–9 rainy days a month in Funchal [1] and about 5–7 hours of sun a day [4]. The sea runs from 18.0 °C in March to 21.5 °C in November [22]. Winter here is mild, not warm: a good season for walking, towns and gardens, a marginal one for the beach.

Funchal	High °C	Low °C	Rainy days	Sun h/day	Sea °C
December	21.0	15.5	8.6	5.1	19.9
January	20.0	14.3	6.2	5.6	18.9
February	19.9	13.9	5.5	6.2	18.2

The same sources as the main table [1][4][22]. December has the most rainy days of the three; February is the coolest and the sunniest.

December, January and February

• December is the festive month: lights, the Christmas market, Market Night on 23 December and the New Year’s Eve fireworks. Events, transport and hotels: Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Madeira.
• January is one of the two quietest months for hotels (see the best time to visit Madeira), with the Christmas season ending around 10 January.
• February brings Carnival: Visit Madeira lists it from 3 to 14 February 2027, in Funchal and around the island [15]. Parade dates and the rest of the festival calendar: the best time to visit Madeira.

Where it’s warmer: south versus north

For a winter base, the south coast is the warm side. In January, the Lugar de Baixo station near Ponta do Sol averaged a daily mean of 18.4 °C and Funchal 17.9 °C, against 15.4 °C at Ponta de São Jorge on the north coast and 13.7 °C at Santana (2012–2025) [6]. The north-side hill stations also get about twice Funchal’s rain (full table below) [7]. Porto Moniz, at the north-west tip, is the exception that looks like the south on paper (17.8 °C in January) [6]. If you want to stay on the north coast, read the station table below first.

Levadas and the mountains in winter

• Trails close in bad weather. IFCN, the forestry institute that runs the classified walking routes, tells walkers not to set out in heavy rain, strong wind, hail or snow [16], and Visit Madeira publishes a live open or restricted status for every official trail [11]. When IPMA issues a weather warning, IFCN can close every classified route on the island at once: closures were reported on 9 December 2025 and again on 1 January 2026, while IPMA warnings continued [17][18].
• Snow closes the summit roads. Snow and hail closed PR1, PR1.1 and PR1.2 and the roads to Pico do Areeiro and Achada do Teixeira in March 2025 [19]; in March 2026 the regional roads department closed the ER202 from Poiso to Pico do Areeiro after snowfall [20], and on 19 March 2026 the accesses to Rabaçal, Achada do Teixeira and Fanal were closed as well [21]. The forest road from Eira do Serrado to Pico do Areeiro closes with the trails in warnings [17][18].
• The mountains are cold. The Pico do Areeiro station averaged a daily mean temperature of 6.0 °C in January and 6.0 °C in February over the years it has data for in 2012–2025, against 17.9 °C and 17.5 °C in Funchal over 2012–2025 [6]. For the peaks, pack for single-digit temperatures, wind and cloud.
• Keep a bad-weather alternative. Funchal’s normal counts 2–3.5 days a month with at least 10 mm from October to March [1]. Keep a lowland walk or a Funchal day in reserve and check the route status on the morning you go. Fees, booking and which routes are closed now: Madeira levada walks.

The sea in winter

The water at Funchal averages 19.9 °C in December, 18.9 °C in January and 18.2 °C in February [22], and the official bathing seasons are over: most of Madeira’s ended in September in 2026, Porto Moniz’s natural pools on 15 October and Porto Santo’s main beaches on 31 October [12]. Check locally before swimming at a beach outside its season. Visit Madeira lists Funchal’s Lido complex, with its saltwater pools, as open all year [14] (see the Lido). Whether 18 °C water is swimmable is your call.

For crowds, festivals and the cheaper months, see the best time to visit Madeira. Madeira’s winter side by side with the Canaries and the Azores: Madeira or the Canary Islands, Madeira or Tenerife and Madeira or the Azores. Combining Madeira with Lisbon or Porto on a family trip: Portugal itinerary with kids.

South coast, north coast and mountains compared

IPMA publishes official normals for only two places in the archipelago, Funchal and Porto Santo [3]. For the rest of the island, the regional statistics office publishes IPMA’s monthly readings from 22 stations since 2012 [6][7]. We averaged the observations available within 2012–2025; coverage varies by station and month, so this is the same window rather than an identical sample of years. That is also why Funchal’s figures below differ slightly from its 30-year normal above.

Station (area)	Daily mean °C, January	Daily mean °C, August	Rain mm a year	Rain mm in November
Funchal/Observatório (south coast)	17.9	24.3	521	82
Lugar de Baixo (south-west coast, Ponta do Sol)	18.4	24.7	537	83
Porto Moniz (north-west tip)	17.8	23.5	590	88
Ponta de São Jorge (north coast, Santana)	15.4	22.2	696	113
Santana	13.7	20.1	1,044	168
São Vicente (north)	not published	not published	1,120	196
Santo da Serra (eastern uplands)	11.6	18.8	1,275	232
Pico do Areeiro (summit area)	6.0	17.9	1,877	291
Chão do Areeiro (mountains)	6.9	17.3	1,957	338
Porto Santo airport	16.6	23.5	437	79

Source: IPMA station readings published by DREM, averaged by us over 2012–2025 [6][7]. Porto Moniz has data only from 2014, and Pico do Areeiro and a few other stations miss some months; the annual totals add up the monthly averages. São Vicente’s temperature block is not published in the file.

How to read it:

• The rain is in the hills, not on every north-facing beach. Santana, São Vicente and Santo da Serra get roughly twice Funchal’s rain, the mountain stations nearly four times as much [7]. This matches a longer study of 41 rain gauges over 80 years, which found 300–700 mm a year on the south slope and 2,500–2,800 mm on the central highlands [9].
• Porto Moniz is a partial exception. The station named Porto Moniz averaged about 590 mm a year, close to Funchal [7]. We do not know exactly where or how high the gauge stands, so read it as one station, not as “the north is dry”.
• The north is cooler. Ponta de São Jorge, on the north coast, ran about 2.5 °C cooler than Funchal in January, and Santana about 4 °C cooler [6].
• It is often greener and damper. In DREM’s 2012–2019 summary, relative humidity averaged 82–84% at Ponta de São Jorge and Santana, against 67% at Funchal/Observatório [8].

Visit Madeira’s own line is that “even when the morning dawns overcast, there is always the certainty that it will be sunny somewhere on the island” [10]. The data here cover rain and temperature, not sunshine, outside Funchal and Porto Santo.

Porto Santo by month

Porto Santo, the smaller inhabited island north-east of Madeira, is drier and slightly cooler than Funchal [1][2]. Its official normal:

Month	High °C	Low °C	Rain mm	Rainy days
Jan	18.4	13.7	44.9	7.4
Feb	18.2	13.3	45.2	6.4
Mar	18.9	13.7	33.4	6.0
Apr	19.8	14.3	30.0	5.2
May	21.2	15.8	18.1	3.5
Jun	23.0	17.8	10.2	2.2
Jul	24.6	19.4	4.1	1.5
Aug	25.7	20.5	4.4	1.4
Sep	25.4	20.0	17.0	3.6
Oct	23.8	18.5	48.4	6.9
Nov	21.2	16.4	63.5	8.4
Dec	19.4	14.9	62.5	9.0

Source: IPMA normal 1991–2020, Porto Santo station 524 [2]. Porto Santo has more rainy days than Funchal in winter but less rain in total (382 mm a year against 574 mm) [1][2]. It is also less sunny in winter: 131–149 hours a month from November to February in 2012–2025, against 158–173 in Funchal; from April to September Porto Santo is the sunnier island [4].

The sea through the year

NOAA OISST v2.1 gives monthly offshore averages of 18.2 °C in February, 18.0 °C in March, 18.5 °C in April, 21.0 °C in June, 23.5 °C in August, 23.8 °C in September and 21.5 °C in November over 2001–2020 [22]. These describe the grid point off Funchal, not every coast of Madeira.

Whether 18 °C water is swimmable is a personal threshold the data cannot set.

Sources

Numbered references match the source list on this page. Read on 9 October 2026; 5 and 15–22 on 11 October 2026.

1. IPMA: Normal Climatológica 1991–2020, Funchal/Observatório (PDF)
2. IPMA: Normal Climatológica 1991–2020, Porto Santo (PDF)
3. IPMA: Normais climatológicas 1991–2020
4. DREM: Insolação 2012–2025 (xlsx)
5. NOAA OISST v2.1: dataset description, accessed 11 October 2026.
6. DREM: Air temperature by month and station 2012–2025 (xlsx)
7. DREM: Precipitation by month and station 2012–2025 (xlsx)
8. DREM: Em Foco: weather data series 1976–2019 (PDF)
9. Spatio-temporal variability of droughts over past 80 years in Madeira Island (2019)
10. Visit Madeira: Weather in Madeira
11. Visit Madeira: Advice to walkers
12. JORAM: Portaria n.º 206/2026, bathing seasons 2026 (PDF)
13. Câmara Municipal do Porto Moniz: Praias
14. Visit Madeira: Lido bathing complex
15. Visit Madeira: Carnaval da Madeira 2027
16. IFCN: Precautions and advice for walkers
17. JM Madeira, 8 Dec 2025: IFCN closes walking routes because of bad weather
18. DNOTICIAS.PT, 1 Jan 2026: classified walking routes stay closed
19. JM Madeira, 4 Mar 2025: road to the top of Pico do Areeiro closed
20. Regional Government of Madeira, 3 Mar 2026: roads closed after snowfall
21. RTP Madeira, 19 Mar 2026: snow closes roads and walking routes
22. NOAA OISST v2.1: daily SST off Funchal (32.625 N, 16.875 W), 2001–2020; monthly means calculated from 20 annual monthly means, accessed 11 October 2026.