Ilda Aurora Pinheiro de Moura Machado

Machado married in 1939. She found it difficult to get a job. In some cases, this was because of discrimination against women: in others, the employer argued that she had too many qualifications. She eventually found a job as a teacher in Porto. Joining the Portuguese Union of Geographic Engineers, she was subsequently asked to head a team in Lisbon that was responsible for surveying Portuguese towns and cities to make maps. All the others working on the project were men. Due to the war, however, the company closed.^[1][2][3]

She then managed to obtain an internship for meteorologists at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, thus beginning her professional career. She was to remain the only female meteorologist in Portugal for the next 17 years. In 1946, when the National Weather Service of Portugal, now Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), was created, she was based in the city of Porto, in which she remained until 1951. Then, returning to Lisbon, she continued her professional career, becoming, in January 1983, the Head of the Division of Marine Meteorology at the weather service. Continuing with her singing, she was one of the founders of a Choral Group at IPMA, called O Tempo Canta (The weather sings). She died in Lisbon on 11 May 2000.^[1][2][3]