Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.
So Was it the Coldest Winter on Tenerife for Years?
The figures are in and the voting is over ““ was this the coldest February on Tenerife and The Canary Islands for years? With an average temperature of 15.5C it was the coldest February since… 2005. What short memories we have. The most recent coldest corresponding month was November 2008.
However, Tenerife Sur airport did register the lowest reading since 1981 with a ‘brrrr’ inducing 9.8C.
Interestingly according to AEMET (Spanish Met Office) figures it has been the driest winter for many, many years with December 2012 being the most arid since 1951. Although the tail end of a wet weather front affecting Europe brought some rainfall to parts mid month, it wasn’t enough to make an impact and rainfall is 80% below what it should be. This makes it almost as rain free as 1994 which, so far, is the driest winter season recorded between 1951 and 2011. Then, the rains finally came during March which helped provide some relief from the drought but the finally tally for the season was still a deficit in rainfall of 70%.
It might not have been the coldest winter for a long, long time but what happens over the next few weeks will determine whether it’s the most rain free one for over half a century.
The Tenerife Government has insisted that, as 84% of Tenerife’s water comes from underground sources, there will be no serious affects on water supplies in the short term and therefore no restrictions are necessary. Although they do advise that people use water sensibly.
El Hierro’s Eruption Over
It took months to actually get going but when the undersea eruption at El Hierro stopped it seemed to happen quite abruptly. In a brief statement on Monday, scientists declared the eruption process to have come to an end. They will continue to monitor the volcanic situation but for now that’s it; the show is over.
Like Selling Sand to the Sahara
It’s good to hear that Canarian wine is being exported to the big wide world even if it comes as a bit of surprise that over 20,000 bottles of the best of Canarian vinos from five vineyards is winging its way to the home of the American wine industry, California.
Why would Californians, whose own wines are light, fruity and smooth, import the more robust and earthy Canarian wines with their hint of rugged volcanic terrains?
The answer is that good Canarian wines are classed by Americans as a speciality wine with a uniquely exotic attraction because they’re made from grapes that don’t exist anywhere else.
Cruise to the Zoo
Tenerife’s Loro Parque and the public bus company Titsa are currently in negotiations to set up a bus connection between the port in Santa Cruz and the world famous zoo in Puerto de la Cruz. Cruise visitors will be able to step off their ship and more or less straight onto a bus that will drop them outside the entrance to Loro Parque. Seems like a sensible service that will be welcomed by many… except maybe companies selling shore excursions.
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to”¦ General Tenerife Bad Practices.
No one person, organisation or business stood out enough to be awarded the TIT award this week, so it can be shared between three stories. There’s the Tenerife water company whose directors are making a hefty profit whilst four million litres of drinking water are lost during a drought due to pipes in desperate need of repair. Then there is the case of the police force who had to go to court just to get their unpaid wages for overtime from a couple of years ago. And finally, how about the municipality in the south of Tenerife whose workers built two new paths through the countryside and blocked up a ravine in the process. Locals claim their ‘improvements” could result in flooding when the rains finally do come.
