SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 7. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The temperature records indicate that, in the Canary Islands as a whole, the month of February has been very warm, reaching 16.2 ºC, which represents an anomaly of +1.3 ºC over the average temperature of the normal reference series (1981 -2010) and places it as the eighth warmest February since 1961.
In terms of rainfall, the average was 29.1 mm, an amount that gives the month of February a normal character, corresponding to 67% of the expected rainfall, which places it in the 22nd position of the driest Februarys since 1961. .
Both the Canary Islands as a whole and the province of Las Palmas presented a very warm character, marking a certain difference with the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which had a warm character. This difference can be seen, at the level of meteorological stations, in a greater absolute value in the anomalies of the stations of the eastern islands, as well as a greater number of negative anomalies in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1 negative anomaly in the province of Las Palmas due to 10 negative anomalies in that of Santa Cruz).
In the daily behavior throughout the month, a maximum temperature can be highlighted, between days 8 and 10, in which the highest values were recorded. During those days, the presence of a relative low over northwestern Africa and the position far to the north (with a center northwest of Galicia) of the Atlantic Anticyclone allowed a low situated to the south to move towards the west of the Canary Islands, generating a flow of continental air, from the southeast, which raised temperatures and caused an entry of haze.
During that episode, more than 30 meteorological stations in the Canary Islands registered maximum temperatures that exceeded 27.0 ºC, highlighting the 33.2 ºC maximum registered in the Aldea de San Nicolás on day 9 (which were preceded by another 31.1 ºC during day 8), 29.3 ºC in Sabinosa (Spa), on the 10th.
Tropical nights occurred in 18 stations of the Archipelago, the vast majority on one of the days of the aforementioned episode, highlighting 6 in Morro Jable, 4 in Playa del Inglés, 4 in Playa Blanca (Yaiza), 2 Tasarte (La Aldea), 4 in Mogán and 2 in La Graciosa.
As for the daily minimums of the month, they were recorded on the 21st and 22nd.
On the other hand, the ephemeris of temperatures leave an excess of the average minimum temperature in Haría, registering 14.4 ºC this month of February, compared to 14.3 ºC in 2020; the absolute maximum temperature of 28.8 ºC in Yaiza (Playa Blanca) on day 2, surpassing the 28.4 of February 21, 1994, and, finally, the lowest absolute minimum temperature, of 3.6 ºC in Teror (Osorio), being the previous ephemeris of 3.8 ºC recorded in 2013.
PRECIPITATION
As notable records, we can mention the 106.8 mm collected during the month (maximum accumulated in an automatic station, in the Canary Islands, during this month of February), in Las Mercedes (Tenerife), with 12 days of appreciable rainfall and a maximum of 38.0 mm collected on the 19th; the 102.4 mm accumulated during the month at the Corral de los Juncos station (San Mateo-Cumbre, Gran Canaria), with a maximum in a single day of 48.0 mm (maximum recorded in a single day, in the Canary Islands, in an automatic station , during this month of February) also during the 19th and 13th days of appreciable rainfall.
Other remarkable precipitations were the 80.2 mm accumulated during the month in San Andrés y Sauces (La Palma), 98.6 mm in Vallehermoso-Alto Igualero (La Gomera), 74.0 mm in San Andrés (Depósito del Cabildo, El Hierro) and 65.4 mm in Teror (Gran Canaria). In the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and despite the fact that stormy episodes and showers were recorded during the month, the rainfall records were more modest, being around 10 mm those measured in the stations with the highest rainfall.
Four episodes of precipitation can be distinguished during the month: Days 1 to 2, a small isolated storm, to the west of the Canary Islands, with a line of instability that, added to a large influx of humidity from the south of the Archipelago, with medium cloudiness and high, it left rainfall, generally weak, although, in some areas (especially Tenerife and El Hierro) and on day 2, it became locally moderate. Part of the rainfall was in the form of showers, producing storms on day 2, leaving a record of 351 electrical discharges over the Canary Islands.
Days 14 to 15: Crossing of moisture frontiers, driven by the Atlantic Anticyclone, which leaves weak and scattered rainfall, concentrated in the north of the islands with greater relief. Days 19 to 21: The drop of a trough from the north and a very weakened front, extreme south of the ‘Eunice’ storm, generated the highest rainfall of the month. The trough ended up forming a DANA in the southwest of the Canary Islands.
Days 23 to 27: We can identify a first episode, on the 23rd, due to the convergence zone between the polar and subtropical jets that interacted, above all, in the coastal strip that separates the Canary Islands from Africa, as well as an isolated storm to the north of the islands and that left some weak precipitations only in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, as well as a great storm activity on both islands, detecting more than 200 electrical discharges.
The rest of the episode left weak rainfall, with some locally moderate, concentrated in the north of the more mountainous islands and caused by air masses with more humidity, propitiated by the flow of the trade wind.
