Tenerife lives days of extreme weather, with drastic changes from one day to the next. Tenerife has gone from rain and snowfall between Tuesday and Friday to a thick cloud of Saharan dust that since yesterday morning floods the sky of the entire island and the eastern province, and that makes even the air smell of earth. At some points, especially in the South, it was impossible to see the horizon. Due to this new episode of haze, denser than expected on islands such as Tenerife, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in the Canary Islands activated the yellow warning. Only La Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera are left out.
The Saharan sand enters with force while the cold drop moves away. The new suffocating scenario led the Ministry of Health to send a statement yesterday in which it recommends that the most sensitive people take precautions, such as avoiding prolonged exposure to the outside air, keeping the windows closed and not making physical efforts outdoors. Health recalled that the dust in suspension contributes to drying out the respiratory tract and, on many occasions, can cause an aggravation of conditions or symptoms related to respiratory diseases, such as asthma or COPD.
Until Tuesday.
Daniel Suárez, provincial delegate of the Aemet, appreciates that The yellow warning for dust in suspension, activated yesterday for the eastern islands and Tenerife, will be extended today to the entire Archipelago. Decreases in visibility have been recorded at the airports with the minimum values at Fuerteventura (750 meters). The forecast is that the weather phenomenon will last at least until Tuesday, “although the maximum peaks will be reached tomorrow (for today),” concludes Suárez.
Temperature rise.
The temperatures rose slightly, although on the summits, especially in Tenerife, it was still very cold yesterday due to the instability of the tail of the DANA -Isolated Depression in High Levels-, although without snow or showers like the one that the Friday caused flooding in Pal-Mar, in the municipality of Arona. In the Teide National Park, the thermometers dropped below 0 degrees again – the minimum yesterday was -4.3 at the Izaña Meteorological Observatory. As you headed down to the coast, temperatures were several degrees above the worst days of the cold drop, Wednesday and Thursday.
All access open.
The turn of time allowed all accesses to the Teide National Park to be open from early in the morning. Both the TF-24 highway (La Esperanza) and the TF-21 (La Orotava and Vilaflor) and the TF-38 (Chío). The situation was conducive to the usual presence of novelists to see the snow. They did not fail but the influx of vehicles was “normal”, values the insular director of Highways, Tomas Félix García. The Snowfall Action Plan of the Civil Guard worked in the control and organization of traffic. Among the agents deployed, the presence of the Tenerife Mountain Group (GREIM) stands out.
No notable incidents.
Tomás García points out that “there have been no notable incidents.” He emphasizes that “from very early we went with the conservation teams” to check how the roads were and “there was neither ice nor frost on the edges of the tracks.” The island director considers that one of the reasons why fewer people went up than other times is that “the increase in temperatures has melted the snow quickly.” A gang from the Cabildo was deployed in the Park but, says García, “we removed it soon because there wasn’t much to do.” After assessing the work of the Civil Guard, he requests “drive with caution” on the access roads to Las Cañadas. Today, Sunday, a greater influx of people is expected and García asks to “respect the parking areas”, in addition to “maximum attention to the signs” and “a lot of caution”. He also recalls that Tenerife “is at level 4 of epidemiological alert for covid-19” so he insists on “taking into account the current restrictions”. For Tomás García «the worst thing is the accumulation of rubbish. If you take your lunch or snack, bring it back and put it in the bins.”
“Don’t go up for this.”
Pasasinhuella, the collective in defense of the landscape promoted by Jaime Coello, director of the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation, has recorded in its social networks new inappropriate attitudes that occurred yesterday in the Teide National Park. It echoes a video on Instagram of Canarias Libre de Plásticos. The images show traces of the passage of those who, in his words, “would have better stayed home.” Car mats, rubbish bags, plastic and metal waste… Sentence: “That’s why they don’t go up.”
“This is the result of the incivility of some people who climb Mount Teide when four snowflakes fall,” says Coello. Another example, in his opinion, of “the lack of environmental education of a part of the population and the passivity of the competent public administrations to defend our natural heritage.” He will not tire of repeating it and he considers himself entitled to do so. The collective has suspended an activity this weekend in anticipation of something like this happening. “Unfortunately, we were not wrong” concludes Coello.
