Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

WILDFIRES

Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire

Spanish firefighters were gaining the upper hand on Tuesday in their battle against a wildfire raging for a week on the holiday island of Tenerife that forced thousands of people to flee, officials said.

Published: 22 August 2023 14:09 CEST
Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire
Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire. Photo: CESAR MANSO / AFP

About 600 firefighters and soldiers backed by 22 water-dropping planes were battling the blaze, which broke out late August 15th in an area of steep ravines and cliffs in the northeast of the island, part of Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa.

Officials said cooler overnight temperatures and weaker winds had helped firefighters fight the flames, which have so far burned nearly 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres).

“This has not ended, but we are starting to see the end of the tunnel,” the archipelago’s head of emergencies, Manuel Miranda, told a news conference in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island’s capital.

The fire, which now has a perimeter of around 88 kilometres (55 miles), forced the evacuation of over 12,000 people, but officials said some from the villages of Arafo and Candelaria have been allowed to return to their homes.

READ ALSO: NASA warns Spain could soon reach 50C 

The head of the local government of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, said officials were considering allowing more evacuees from other villages to return home shortly.

“We are looking to return to normal, little by little,” she told the news conference.

During a visit to Tenerife on Monday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government would classify the areas affected by the blaze as disaster zones, a move which will trigger emergency subsidies and other support measures.

The blaze broke out after the archipelago suffered a heatwave that left many areas tinder dry.

The Canary Islands typically experience spring-like temperatures all year, but temperatures have recently soared to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some parts.

READ ALSO: Are Spain’s wildfires a risk to people’s health? 

The seven-island archipelago is located off the northwest coast of Africa and southwest of mainland Spain. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Morocco.

As global temperatures rise due to climate change, scientists have warned that heatwaves will become more frequent and more intense.

Last year, Spain suffered more than 500 blazes that destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, making it the worst-hit country in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

So far this year, it has had 340 fires, which have ravaged almost 76,000 hectares, EFFIS figures show. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CLIMATE CRISIS

No winter snow on Spain’s Teide for first time in 108 years

Tenerife’s Mount Teide, the highest peak in Spain, has not had any snowfall during the winter months for the first time in over a century, after the Canary Islands experienced their hottest January and February since records began.

Published: 15 March 2024 14:52 CET
No winter snow on Spain's Teide for first time in 108 years

Anyone who has visited Tenerife in the Canaries will be familiar with the majestic Mount Teide, a 3,715-metre-high dormant volcano that dominates the island’s varied landscape.

Despite the archipelago’s traditionally mild weather during winter, such is the altitude of El Teide that during periods of rainfall in the archipelago the mercury plummets below zero and the volcano and surrounding national park are covered in snow. 

Not this winter however, not once during the period running from December 1st to February 29th has the iconic symbol of Tenerife been snow-capped, the first time it’s happened in 108 years. 

Climate change deniers on the islands have been quick to respond that there was some snow on Teide in November, but this was only on the tip and lasted a couple of days as the mercury then reached abnormal temperatures above 30C.

This is no normal winter for the so-called fortunate islands, having recorded the hottest January and February temperatures on record, 2.5C above the average winter temperature of 17.7C.

There has also only been 12 days over the winter months without calima, sand that blows over from the nearby Sahara desert creating a haze that makes it harder to breathe. 

READ ALSO: What is ‘calima’ and is it bad for you?

In the easterly Canary island of Fuerteventura, the municipality of La Oliva recorded a record 31.7C on January 16th.

There’s also been far less rain than usual, a worrying situation given that Tenerife’s government recently declared a drought emergency with a view to introducing water restrictions before the drier hotter summer. 

“There has been an accumulated rainfall of 36 litres per square metre (during winter), that’s only 28 percent of the expected precipitation for this period,” state meteorologist David Suárez told journalists.

This drier and hotter climate largely explained why wildfires destroyed huge parts of Tenerife’s dense forested areas in August of 2023, the worst fires in forty years.

“We’re facing one of the driest winters in recent history and ensuring the water supply for citizens and for Tenerife’s countryside is an essential issue that cannot have political preferences,” Cabildo president Rosa Dávila told the press about the island’s drought plans.

It’s a worrying scenario for Tenerife and the 7 other islands that form part of this Atlantic archipelago off the coast of Western Sahara. 

Their geographical location and the trade winds that sweep through them used to ensure that they were a refuge during the bitter cold winter months and scorching summer in the distant European continent, which explains why tourism has long been the single most important industry in the Canaries.

This pleasant mild weather is now at risk, and the absence of winter snow on El Teide is the latest example of how climate change is transforming weather patterns in the Canaries and Spain as a whole. 

SHOW COMMENTS