Green Azure Azores

Vila Franca do Campo: Warmest water of Portuguese coast, 21°C, 20 November
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The Truth about the Azores Climate can now be revealed

The "4 seasons in a day" cliché was one of the reasons that saved the Azores from being destroyed by mass tourism.

The explosion of oil price arrives too late to save the Azores. So now revealing the truth about the Azores climate will actually help improve the quality of the controlled destruction currently in progress. In other words: hopefully luxury resorts instead of mass tourism urbanisacions.

The essential about the Azores climate: the coasts boast one of the midest and most constant subtropical climates of the world.

In fact measuring the mildest climates of the world as minimal sum of heating and cooling degree days, the Azores Riviera, comes second only to the south coast of Madeira and to Porto Santo as well as Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island (Australia) when using the usual 65°F (18.5°) base.

Precipitation and relative humidity increase dramatically with elevation, comparable only with what happens in the luv coasts of Hawaii.

This is why in Sao Miguel Island, above the Riviera (Caloura, Vila Franca do Campo), which has the best Azores climate together with the tiny Riviera of Santa Maria island, the mountains above 300m elevation, have a climate which does not allow human settlement, because of saturated air during extensive periods. A few km to the north, on the north coast, one can find Europe's only tea plantation. At 150m above sea level is as well the plantation at lowest elevation in the world. No wonder, this saturation border prohibiting human settlement begins already at 200 m elevation in the north coast. At the islands of Flores and Corvo, the two northwesternmost islands, this border begins as low as 50 meters at the hyperhumid west coast.