Tranquil in Tenerife, Despite High Winds, Heavy Rains and Thick Fog

Well, it would be. When is it ever anything but tranquilo? :)

Relatively anyway, though some precautions need to be taken. Canarias 7 report today that, in Tenerife, there is a lot of wind, cold and fog in the north, overall in the area of the Los Rodeos airport, where several flights have had to be cancelled.

The situation here in the El Palmar valley is identical, although it is only dog walks that have been affected. Actually, we got off relatively lightly during Tropical Storm Delta, but we seem to be paying for it a bit today, with sheets of rain being blown at us, randomly, from the north, the south and the east.

And getting in any crack they can find, in any direction!

At the Parador hotel in Las Cañadas del Teide and in other high altitude areas of the island, very strong winds of up to 150 kmph (over 90 mph) have been registered.

More snow is expected at the peak and the sea is very rough.

The media were again, both last night and this morning, giving advice over the current bad weather alert.

As ever, that advice includes:

* Don't go out at all, unless you really, really have to

* Batten down anything that could move

* Don't walk near old buildings or building sites

* Don't drive through flood waters

* Avoid mountain roads with a risk of rock falls

* Stay away from the seafront and beach

Do they actually tell the tourists that last one?

Yeah, I know we all used to be obliged to go on the beach in a raincoat, in the pouring rain, or else you would never ever do so, on childhood summer holidays to Clacton or Weymouth, but the up to 4 meter waves forecast here for today may put a slightly different angle on the matter. It is dangerous.

Jornada relativamente tranquila en Canarias, a pesar de los fuertes vientos

Labels: Tenerife Weather

Permalink | (6) Comments | Post a Comment

 Tenerife Scribbler wrote (on February 08, 2006 4:38 PM)  

Tourists hear public service announcements? I took this picture from outside my office at about 4pm today.

 Pamela wrote (on February 08, 2006 8:37 PM)  

What public service announcements? If they exist, they are a new one on me.

There should be flags on the beach. Though I wouldn't know what colour means what and they only refer to staying out of the water.

But, I have no doubt that some tour guides, hotels and similar establishments may inform their guests. Some might like the extra income from keeping them on the premises.

Do they cancel excursions, once people have booked and paid?

Others may be too busy working to know about the declared state of alert themselves.

And then, how does the independent traveller, renting an apartment with no guide/receptionist get to find out what is going on?

It is the Canarian Govt. that issues a state of alert, based upon meteorological predictions. The media then trots out a standard list of reminders and warnings during their news broadcasts. Those TV announcements are in Spanish, which means that 99% of both British tourists and ex-pat residents will never hear nor understand them.

I may be very mistaken, but as far as I can tell, there really isn't a plan to deal with these circumstances, as far as the tourist is concerned, beyond them using their own common sense ... and we know they generally leave that in a locker at Gatwick airport!

 Tenerife Scribbler wrote (on February 09, 2006 1:39 PM)  

We have flags! Red ones today (no swimming). And there's a small toddler building a sandcastle at the base of one of them. None of the whale excursions went out of Puerto Colon yesterday, but no idea about refunds. I guess so, I mean they all seem a pretty friedly bunch when you bump into them at the cafés there, I can't imagine they'd be dishonest. (Am I naïve?)

The English radio stations down south (eg Oasis FM) seem to broadcast warnings fairly quickly and repetitively, actually more effectively than some of the Canarian stations. So we're not that bad here.

Of course up north (where you are), there's less of an English speaking infrastructure, but there are fewer English speakers, so I guess they go hand in hand.

Independant travellers? No idea. But I guess they'd be a problem to reach anywhere.

And as far as a plan goes... er well, no chance! But I do happen to know that there is a plan for how to evacuate all Brits from the Island if Teide should suddenly blow it's top. I remember having discussion with consulate about how many of us there are here.

 Pamela wrote (on February 09, 2006 2:40 PM)  

Yes, I suppose the excursion boat owners would have reliable information and orders from the port authorities. Land excusrions may not be so controlled.

Not sure who is running Oasis now, but they get their information direct from the Spanish press agencies. The same Govt. information that the Spanish media gets. Of course it requires that English speakers know about them and tune in, but I guess they are pretty well promoted down there.

Because of the walls of mountains around this valley I can't get conventional radio signals, so I can't get Oasis, other than via the Internet. If I'm doing that, I choose to listen to radio stations from further afield that play music I actually like!

Around here the English speaking infrastructure consists of me, plus two other British residents that I know of, but I have met neither of them and one Canarian who speaks pretty good English because he once lived in Slough. :)

I'm really trying to build a picture of what measures there are, if any, but I guess the reality is that there really aren't any, anywhere, anyway.

Do they mean to evacuate the British tourists, or us residents as well?

 Tenerife Scribbler wrote (on February 09, 2006 3:14 PM)  

Well I was researching how many homes might be owned by Brits here, and of course they had not a clue, but were interested in my eventual results. Their plan took into account the number of residencias issued, but they also acknowledged that that was a figure far below the real number.

My residencia was issued in Fuerteventura, so I think I'll have to go there for help!

 Pamela wrote (on February 09, 2006 9:12 PM)  

LOL! Yeah, well, they may as well stick their finger in the air.

The most accurate records should be from the Town Halls of the numbers of what nationalities that are "empadronado" (which is obligatory) and those, should be collated by the statistics office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística).

They did recently publish that information, see Number of Foreign Residents in the Canary Islands Tripples in Five years. Although, even the original data it came from probably won't distinguish between those who are renting from those who own property.