Abstract

Considering the growing and indisputable social significance of the study of climate, particularly due to the risks associated to Global Warming and consequent occurrence of climatic paroxysms, it is our purpose to describe the however short history of Climatology in Portugal. The official recognition of the importance of establishing a standardized and comparative register of climatic data started in 1853 with the establishment of the first observatory in the Medical an Surgical School of the Hospital of St. António in Oporto, followed, in 1854, by the meteorological observatory "Infante D. Luis" in Lisbon and the meteorological observatory of the University of Coimbra, in 1863