David Suárez, territorial delegate of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in the Canary Islands, was this Thursday on the program More than One of Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero to explain the characteristics of storm Therese that seriously affected the Canary Islands and advance the weather forecast for Holy Week.
The expert has explained that during the month of March, the islands were affected by two high-impact storms. The first of them was Regina and the last Therese, which has created "a very complex, very persistent situation and with a duration of one week".
Regarding Therese, Suárez has detailed that it is a storm that "has had a very stationary process in the vicinity of the Canary Islands and we have had a persistence of the situation due to the fact that the circulation that was more intense remained outside the domain of the storm and, therefore, it practically did not move". In this sense, he comments that there were two differentiated situations at the beginning of its life cycle "affected by different frontal structures, since the center of Therese remained further north and from Saturday and Sunday, we have had it much closer".
This proximity to the archipelago caused "a greater uncertainty in some forecasts". Being so close, "the typical convection of this type of structures that have affected the Canary archipelago in a very differential way" developed.
On the other hand, the delegate has emphasized that the forecasts in meteorology "are in terms of probability". "We give the forecasts as a percentage of the probability that it is expected to affect," he continues. In this way, he has highlighted the complexity of Therese's recent days "because the models have not been very consistent".
As he detailed, "the numerical models, which are the tools we use to make the forecast, have not been very consistent and have had difficulty in pinpointing the center of the structure, the positioning and this, in a territory like the Canary Islands, insular and with a complex orography, adds more complication".
A very active year in terms of storms
The 2025-2026 season has so far resulted in nineteen storms that have affected the Canary Islands. "Without a doubt, we are having a very active start to the year and it is being a winter that is being a record-breaker because it is the first year that we have already surpassed this number of appointments and we are waiting for us to be able to continue with this type of situations", he/she has assured.
These increasingly common and violent situations are largely due to climate change, as happened with the DANA in Valencia, according to a study. "This type of precipitation situation, both spatially and temporally, that occurs very suddenly, may be more frequent in an atmosphere that is altered and that is becoming increasingly warmer and is capable of holding more and more water vapor," he pointed out.
Prediction for Holy Week
After leaving Therese behind, the weather in Lanzarote and the rest of the Canary Islands has stabilized with the typical trade winds from the north component and the associated cloudiness. Looking ahead to Holy Week, David Suárez anticipates that we will have meteorological stability.
"We will have trade wind type cloudiness passing and precipitation is not generally probable and the only rain that may arrive is that associated with that drizzle-type cloudiness," he stated. "We expect a Holy Week that is calm," he concluded.