Our first update for 2009 and the sun is shining! 
There were a few showers on the first couple of days of January, but it was quite mild - in fact on Sunday (4th) we had a walk on the beach and people were in their shorts and t-shirts and some just in swimsuits! The air cooled rather by Monday and it was overcast for the next couple of days, but since then it's been blue skies and sunshine. It has, though, been cold out of the sun - in fact on Friday morning we even scraped ice off the car at 7am - it was -1.5C°! Now that was definitely a "first"! The same afternoon we were in Albufeira walking along the marina in t-shirts and it was about 22/23° C! We haven't had it freezing since, although the nights have been very cold and we have definitely enjoyed having our log fire burning in the evenings!  The cold air seems to be moving away today as the shade temperature is 15°C rather than the 8° to 10°C it has been.