the impressive images of the Canary Islands from space

The four national parks of the Canary Islands, timanfaya (Lanzarote), Teide (Tenerife), garajonay (La Gomera) and Caldera de Taburiente (La Palma), are just one of the examples of the beauty treasured by the islands blessed by the four cardinal points, whose photographs and videos go around the world.

If the Islands are beautiful at ground level, they are also beautiful from space. This is demonstrated by the captures that from time to time are made from the heights by the different satellites that work for different missions, including the Sentinels of the European Copernicus program.

Canary Islands in the last five years

Recently, it has been shown how the Archipelago has changed in the last five years and the most striking thing is the amount of green surface that is reflected, the result of whether it has rained more or less. The Canarian soil is very grateful and with a few drops that soak the ground the first shoots already appear.

How has the evolution of the Canary Islands been seen from space in the last five years? The Sentinel 2 satellite shows how the Islands have changed by capturing December images of the Archipelago as a whole, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Graciosa and the islets of the Chinijo Archipelago and Fuerteventura corresponding to the months of December of the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022which has been compiled in several videos by Twitter user @isaki64.

The abundance or scarcity of rain is reflected in the green or drier surface that can be seen from space in the visual review offered by the tweeter.

From dry to green

2018

December 2018 was very dry in many areas, but also extremely dry in not a few, details the Aemet. The isolated, sporadic and very meager rainfall, with monthly maximums of just 4 mm at the Aguamansa, Cruz de Tejeda and San Andrés y Sauces stations, made December 2018 the driest of the historical series for numerous stations. Along with 2018, there has only been another month of December without rainfall at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife observatory since 1867: that of the year 1900. And only four in that of Izaña, with data from 1916: the Decembers of the years 1918, 1959, 2011 and 2018. Due to the scarceness, the rainfall recorded at the Tenerife North airport (1.4 mm) has been ephemeris, with data since 1941; Vallesequillo (0.3 mm), with records since 1966; and La Palma airport (1.6 mm), with observations since 1970.

2019

Rainfall recorded in December 2019 They were only around the expected values ​​or slightly above them, in areas of the central and eastern islands, being dry or very dry in the rest. The highest amounts of precipitation, above 100 mm, have been recorded in Aguamansa (289.3 mm), Corral de los Juncos, Roque de los Muchachos and Alto de Igualero. These precipitations can be grouped into two episodes. The first, of a general nature and between days 2 and 6, was caused by a DANA during its approach from the northeast.

Snow was observed in above 2500 meters. The estimated amount of snow during the episode at Roque de los Muchachos (2,223 m) was 1.2 mm and at Izaña, 72.6 mm.

Between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on December 5, some storms were observed that left torrential showers in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (63.6 mm/h) and in San Juan de la Rambla, as well as 51 records of lightning, most of them in the sea.

The year 2019 was the year with the least number of lightning strikes in the Canary Islands since 2006, a clear indicator of the scarce convective activity developed throughout it. The second episode was generated by a cold front that, associated with the Daniel storm, affected the Canary Islands on the 15th and 16th, leaving general precipitation, snow above 2,200 m, and very strong intensity in the north of Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

2020

The month of December 2020 was practically dry. The total precipitation was 31.7 mm, which represents 49% of the expected amount. The number of rainy days (14) was, however, much higher than the expected value (9), according to Aemet.

The highest rainfall was recorded in the midlands of El Hierro, with more than 270 mm, the only island that had normal rainfall behavior. Unlike in 2019, no significant snowfall was observed in Izaña, as has been the case in just over a fifth of the months of December of this century.

2021

In December 2021, the weather station that accumulated the most precipitation is in Gran Canaria, specifically in Tejeda, with 111.6 mm in 6 rainy days; in El Paso (La Palma): 77.2 mm in 13 rainy days; Las Mercedes (Tenerife) accumulated 69.0 mm in 17 days of rain; Arure (La Gomera) registered 63.8 mm in 15 rainy days; Haría (Lanzarote) observed 5.2 mm in 6 rainy days; and Fuerteventura/airport, 0.3 mm in 4 days of precipitation, 3 of them negligible.

The Aemet has not published the data for December 2022.