The wind does not give respite to the north of Tenerife. The last two storms, barely two weeks apart (the penultimate one occurred on January 17), have cost the north of the island several thousand euros due to the significant damage it has caused to street furniture. Garbage containers, lampposts and flower pots are added to various detachments of electrical and telephone wiring, fall of traffic signs and signs of some businesses.
The yellow warning warned by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) was met with strong gusts of wind recorded at dawn, which in municipalities such as La Matanza de Acentejo or El Sauzal, and, specifically, the Ravelo area, reached 114 and 104 kilometers per hour, respectively, exceeding all forecasts.
This last locality and Tacoronte have once again been the most affected. However, unlike the previous storm, this time it was not baited with the midlands, but with the hull and the lower area of both municipalities. In the case of Tacoronte, its mayor, José Daniel Díaz, specified that the greatest problems were a bus shelter at the height of the Torreón, in Los Naranjeros, which the force of the wind ripped off by the roots, and the fall of a large tree. dimensions in a private estate located on Camino La Mina street, which did not cause personal damage, but blocked the road and required the rapid intervention of the operators.
However, after making an assessment of the damages, Díaz confirmed that on this occasion the amount ranges between 12,000 and 13,000 euros, while those registered two weeks ago represented an expense of close to 35,000 euros to the municipal coffers, because it affected a greater number of urban furniture, to which other damages in agriculture were added, fundamentally, in certain types of fruit trees, such as citrus fruits, and avocado trees, according to the farmers who have their stall in the Farmer’s Market.
In this sense, it should be remembered that the president acknowledged that the damage caused in January had been even more considerable than that left by the storm of wind and haze that occurred in March 2020, which affected a large part of the island and forced suspend all Carnival acts, in addition to all air operations, due to the dust storm with gusts of up to 160 kilometers.
In the case of El Sauzal, the areas most affected by the wind were the General Highway, the town center and San José. In addition to the most frequent incidents, such as the fall of trees and branches -already removed-, there were other materials with important consequences, such as the fencing of the sports center in this last neighborhood, which collapsed and will have to be changed; that of the Las Breñas soccer field, and the tracks of the El Calvario sports complex.
quick intervention
“There have been important damages that have been solved thanks to the municipal services and the workers of the Cabildo de Tenerife, who acted on the Rafael Ramos highway, where a large stone wall fell almost a hundred meters from a farm,” he told this newspaper the mayor, Mariano Pérez.
The councilor assured that all of them were active from very early “so that the town returns to normality and all the damage caused is in order as soon as possible.”
In La Orotava, the intense wind began around four in the morning, especially in the midlands, although it was also felt in the town and in coastal areas such as El Rincón.
The incidents were not serious, but there were many falling branches and displacement of garbage containers, which were collected first thing in the morning by the municipal and Civil Protection services.
The most relevant thing to highlight was the detachment of a rooftop gazebo in the Pino Alto neighbourhood, which required the intervention of the Tenerife Fire Brigade due to the risk of it falling into the street, but which was quickly resolved.
In La Matanza de Acentejo, in addition to the damage to street furniture, the wind damaged the roof of the Sociocultural Center of Fuente del Lomo.
Similar damage was recorded in Garachico and Los Realejos. In this last city, all the municipal services (gardens, forest workers and street cleaning) had to dedicate themselves to cleaning the roads, due to the large number of fallen trees and branches, a task that will continue today and will be reinforced with two of the three sweepers, according to the mayor of Services and delegate of the Palo Blanco neighborhood, Domingo García. In this municipality, where the gusts at times reached one hundred kilometers per hour, the most affected areas were the midlands (Palo Blanco, Icod el Alto and La Ferruja) and the summit (Chanajiga).
In specific places, such as Los Cuartos, the signage of a private work was destroyed; In Camino de Lomo la Viuda there were houses that were temporarily without power and in the area known as La Lechera, private early potato gardens that are planted for harvest in March were affected.
The forecast for today: Probable haze
After yesterday’s yellow warning, today the Canary Islands will suffer a “probable” haze in the three islands of the eastern province and will also impact, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Archipelago.
The weather forecast for today from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) also indicates that there will be cloudy intervals of medium and high clouds, with a predominance of slightly cloudy skies during the second half of the day. In the afternoon, intervals of low clouds will form on the north slope.
The temperatures will not change or will drop slightly and the thermometers will oscillate between a maximum of 23 degrees in La Gomera and Tenerife, and a minimum of 12 degrees in El Hierro.
As far as the wind is concerned, it will blow from the southeast in the early hours, which will turn to the northwest with light breezes on the east coast. In central summits there will be a strong southwest wind with probable very strong gusts, mainly during the first half of the day.
