The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has predicted the entry of an air front, loaded with suspended dust from the Sahara desert, which is arriving in Lanzarote and will reach the rest of the Archipelago in the next few hours. The arrival of the first particles to the island is already generating problems in air quality.
The stations of air quality measurement that Endesa and the Government of the Canary Islands have in Lanzarote, distributed between Arrecife and the coast of Teguise, reveal that the presence of suspended particles of less than 10 microns is already generating an "unfavorable air quality" in both locations. Spanish and European legislation states that the values should not be above 50 micrograms per cubic meter, but at 12:00 noon this Wednesday, one of the stations in the capital of Lanzarote indicated that the suspended dust exceeded 62 micrograms.
Meanwhile, at another station, located in the Arrecife Sports City, at that time the concentration of particles smaller than 2.5 microns made the air quality "regular" and unfavorable due to the presence of suspended dust smaller than 10 microns. The same occurs at the Las Caletas (Teguise) station, where the air quality was also unfavorable.
According to the website Accuweather, the air quality index on the island in general is unhealthy, not only for risk groups, but also for healthy people, who may experience difficulty breathing and throat irritation after prolonged exposure.
In contrast, in Playa Blanca the air quality is good at this time of the afternoon. The entry of more haze during the night of this Wednesday and the early morning of this Thursday will determine how the air situation on the island will evolve.
