The year 2021 has been in Tenerife «Warm and with little rain». This is how David Suárez, provincial delegate of the Meteorology Statal Agency, who takes as a basis the high temperatures and low rainfall that reflects the climatic progress of last December, released a few days ago. The maximums have been half a degree above the usual and the rains have been lower than normal in the last month of the year. Suárez warns that this is an extrapolation, since the final balance will be published in April or May, with all the data included.
The December balance shows that it was a warm month, both in the Canary Islands and in Tenerife, with a positive anomaly in the average temperatures of more than 0.3 degrees, even higher in the maximum (+ 0.5 °) than in the minimum (+ 0.2 ° ). The 16th warmest December since 1961, at the same level as those of 1979 and 2016. Temperatures were below the average until the 19th and above from that date onwards until reaching an anomaly of + 4 ° on the 31st. The maximums exceeded 28 degrees in areas of the Island. By contrast, the lowest minimums occurred in the middle of the month. In Izaña, five days of frost were registered, three less (eight) than the average of the period taken as a base. The number of tropical nights (30 degrees or more) was very low, something usual; the stations with the most cases, two, are in Tenerife: Guía de Isora and Tacoronte.
Pluviometry.
The rainfall behavior was “very dry”. It has been the eleventh month of December with the least rainfall since 1961. Regarding the current hydrological year (October 1, 2021- December 31, 2022), the first quarter shows the fourth lowest rainfall since 1961. It is worth highlighting the 17 days of rain registered in Las Mercedes (La Laguna) with a total of 69 liters per square meter that places it the first in the Canary Islands in terms of days and the third in the amount fallen. Another fact: on the 14th and 15th of the month, a cold front caused very strong intensity showers in Taganana (Santa Cruz). Globally, so many lightning strikes (145) had not been recorded in the Islands since 2014. David Suárez explains: “The storms passed close by, but they did not affect us fully.”
Insolation.
Sunshine is another factor to take into account to qualify last month as “very warm”, since a number of hours of sunshine above the average was registered in almost all the main seasons, being the thirteenth in the ranking since 1991. The number mean hours of sunshine was 230, 4% above the mean (satellite data) for the reference period, 1991-2020. The station with the most hours of sunshine was Izaña, with 272.5, 26% above the average; at the opposite pole, Tenerife North recorded 139.2 hours, despite everything 3% higher than the average. Regarding the solar radiation data, the average was 3.46 kWh per square meter. The maximum, 3.96 kWh / m2, was registered by Montaña Blanca, on the slopes of Teide.
Wind and haze.
The average speed in the Canary Islands was 21.6 km / h, 5% less than expected. There were two episodes of strong wind (northeast), with very strong gusts. As it had already happened in November, 100 kilometers per hour were not reached. In Izaña reached the second highest average speed, 25 Kkm / h, after the Alto de Igualero, in La Gomera (27 km / h). In general, there were a lower number of haze intrusions than expected, none of particular relevance in terms of visibility.
Reference model.
Since October 2020, the average values obtained from the monthly and annual temperature and precipitation grids in the Canary Islands and its two provinces have been used as a reference for climate monitoring. The reference period is 1981-2010. Suárez explains that this change in methodology “may give rise to small differences with respect to the results obtained previously.”
The forecast.
The year 2022 has begun on the Island, according to the analysis of the AEMET delegate, how 2021 ended with regard to the weather: “hot and very dry.” As for the timid frosts –more than snowfalls– of last Monday and Tuesday of this week in the Teide National Park, in principle, they will not have continuity in the next few days. The forecast until next week is that of the dominance of the powerful anticyclone in northern Europe, between the British Isles and the Cantabrian Sea, which blocks a storm to the west of the Canary Islands, the entry of African air and the low probability of rain. Stable, dry and even warm weather. In any case, David Suárez clarifies that “there is still a month and a half of winter left with months of quite usual rainfall such as February and March, and a spring that is always unpredictable. So the picture can change a lot. That would be the desirable future, but on what has already happened, he points out: «The truth is that in December it did not rain as expected when it is a month of normal rainfall. And in January, for now, there has only been one specific episode, the 5th and 6th in the Northeast of the Island, with about 20 liters per square meter ». Far away from the panorama left by the storm Filomena in January of last year with the highest snowfall of the last five on Mount Teide and record negative temperatures of up to 12 degrees below zero.
Trail closure due to ice and snow
The Teide National Park Directorate, which Miguel Durbán occupies, decided yesterday to completely cut access to trail number 11, La Fortaleza Viewpoint, as a preventive measure in the presence of ice and snow. It only leaves those people with a valid mountain federation card excluded from this prohibition, on the date of the activity, who have the appropriate equipment. In a statement they also recommend taking all precautions on the rest of the trails in the network. Some noveleros have begun their traditional pilgrimage to the National Park as soon as the first flakes fall. His joy in a well because there is hardly any frost and ice, which equates to danger.
