Weather warnings remain in place as Storm Therese batters the island
Holiday hotspots Tenerife and Lanzarote continue to endure heavy rains and strong winds today as Storm Therese batters the Canary Islands.
Weather warnings remain in force for all of the Spanish archipelago today, March 20, with amber alerts in place for La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria, where winds are expected to reach up to 100km/h in mountainous areas.
Meanwhile Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are covered by yellow warnings for winds reaching 70km/h. Yellow coastal warnings are in force for all of the islands with force seven winds (50-61km/h) whipping up large swells.
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A special weather advisory has been issued by Aemet, Spain’s national weather agency, and remains in place until Sunday. Forecasting the weather for today, Friday, it states: “The frontal system will finish crossing the archipelago, extending rainfall to the eastern islands.
“Heavy, and locally very heavy, showers are possible into the early morning hours, particularly in southern Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Over the next few hours, a further increase in instability is expected, with showers that may be accompanied by thunderstorms and small hail in the western islands.
“These showers could be locally heavy or very heavy and persistent on the southern and western slopes of La Palma and Tenerife. Very strong gusts of southwest wind are also expected to continue, with a probability of exceeding 90 km/h on the summits and leeward areas of the larger islands. The rough seas will continue throughout the archipelago, with waves exceeding 5 meters in the same areas as on Thursday. “
It warns that the unstable weather conditions are likely to continue into the weekend. The stormy weather has triggered a swathe of warnings from the Canary Islands government, including issuing alerts and pre-alerts for heavy rain, landslides and flooding.
Schools in the Canary Islands have closed today with no in-person teaching taking place. On Wednesday, more than 20 flights were cancelled at airports across the Canary Islands while several more were diverted. Most of them were inter-island flights.
On Tiktok people have shared an insight into the weather in the Canary Islands, with one holidaymaker describing Tenerife as ‘Baltic’. It comes as Aemet recorded the lowest temperature in Spain at Teide National Park weather station on Thursday, where temperatures dropped to -4.5C at 1am, Canarian Weekly reports. Aemet currently forecasts daytime highs of around 18-20 degrees for the Canary Islands.
TikTok user @wendy.utbfashionbeauty4 posted a video on Thursday showing cloudy skies in Tenerife. She said: “This is currently Tenerife, let me tell you it’s absolutely Baltic. There is not letting up in this weather at all. Such a shame, not seeing one person on a sun lounger, everyone’s wrapped up, in coats, anoraks, it’s absolutely freezing, there’s no warm air whatsoever.” She added: “It’s just so sad for those who are landing, the weather app just shows rain, rain, rain.”
Another TikTok user @Payne Life shared a video of storms on the horizon in Lanzarote with the caption: “PoV: you picked the worst time to go to Lanzarote”.
He said: “Have you ever seen such a bleak-looking day”, before sharing clips of the rain and sarcastically saying it’s “beautiful”. Another clip shows torrential rain at the poolside with strong gusts of wind, which he said “looks like a hurricane.”
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