The Canary Islands experienced their third warmest July since 1961 last month, with an average temperature of 23.7 degrees and a positive anomaly of 1.6 degrees, which corresponds to a "very warm" character, according to the climatological advance of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
As for Lanzarote, according to the Cabildo Data Center, the island recorded an average temperature of 26.1 degrees Celsius this year, compared to 24.8 last year.
Thermally, July was characterized by two warm episodes that led to heat waves and occupied most of the month, except for the first days, from the 1st to the 5th, and a small period between the 15th and 18th.
The increases affected both the maximum and minimum temperatures, while the average value of rainfall recorded was 2 liters per square meter, which gives it a "very humid" character. However, according to the Lanzarote Data Center, no rainfall was recorded on the island in July, as in the same month of 2021.
This average rainfall is 250% of the expected rainfall according to the normal series 1981-2010, and can be classified in the seventh position of the wettest July months since 1961.
Regarding the average hours of sunshine over the Canary Islands area, it was 308.9 hours, 95.2% of what was expected according to the reference series from 1991 to 2020. Also, during the first days of the month, until the 7th, the average temperature remained below the temperature of the reference series 1981-2010.
From that date, with the Atlantic Anticyclone located far to the west of the Azores, the presence of high pressures, at high levels of the atmosphere, over northwest Africa and relative low pressures over territories closer to the coast of the continent, an east-southeast flow was established over the Canary Islands, with high temperatures and the entry of haze at high levels.
All this resulted in a heat wave between the 9th and 11th, with maximums during the 10th, which affected the entire archipelago, although with special incidence in the summit area and southern half of the island of Gran Canaria.
Considering the average temperature of the maximums, this heat wave has been the second most intense of the 41 that have been recorded since 1975, the first being that of July 2012.
After the decrease in temperatures from the 12th, these remained at values close to those of the average of the normal reference series, until the 18th and, caused by a situation similar to that described in the first warm episode, a new increase began that day, which also included the presence of haze at high levels.
This led to the second heat wave, which although it did not present such high values in the indicators, left the record of the highest maximum temperature of the month, La Aldea-Tasarte in Gran Canaria, with 45º C, on the 25th.
This heat wave extended between the 24th and 26th, ending the month with a decrease in temperatures to values close to the average of the reference series.
In addition, tropical nights were generalized in the islands, with 1,443 records of minimum temperatures greater than 20º C, of which 196 are records equal to or greater than 25º C and, among these, 12 with minimum temperatures equal to or greater than 30º C, all of them in Gran Canaria, except for one case in La Dehesa, in El Hierro.
Finally, the 33.8º C minimum temperature in Agüimes in Gran Canaria, on July 10, stands out.
