Lanzarote said goodbye to the year 2025 with a colder and wetter December than usual. So much so, that the island of volcanoes registered the lowest minimum temperature in the archipelago for stations located between sea level and a maximum altitude of 200 meters. Specifically, Lanzarote Airport, at an altitude of 14 meters, reached a minimum of 11.2 degrees on December 12th.
The archipelago's temperature was 0.7 degrees below average, making it the 21st coldest December since data collection began in 1961. In some locations, such as Izaña, in Teide National Park, Tenerife, temperatures reached -2.9 degrees.
According to records, December was colder and wetter than in 2005, when the islands suffered the last remnants of tropical storm Delta, which hit the Canary Islands at the end of November that year.
Storm Emilia brought very cold temperatures
Practically the entire month of December, the archipelago's temperatures remained below the usual average of 15 degrees for this time of year. So much so that on December 13, the average temperature dropped to 11.8 degrees across all islands, marking the lowest of the month.
The drop in temperatures between December 11 and 14 was related to the front associated with storm Emilia, which caused temperatures to drop to 4.4 degrees below what was expected.
Throughout the month, Lanzarote experienced a temperature mismatch, especially in the southern part of the island, with an anomaly of 0.5 to 1.5 degrees below average. At the same time, the island suffered a very cold season in the south and cold in the north.
A very rainy December
Focusing on precipitation, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Gran Canaria recorded a very wet December, exceeding precipitation forecasts by 189%. Furthermore, it became the ninth wettest December since records began.
The passage of storm Bram on December 10, and storm Emilia between the 12th and 14th, left constant rainfall in Lanzarote and painted its fields and volcanoes green.
The highest daily rainfall records in Lanzarote registered up to 41 liters of rain per square meter in the Las Vegas area, in Tías, on December 13th. That same day, 30.6 liters were recorded in Playa Blanca, in the municipality of Yaiza, and up to 24 millimeters in Los Dolores, in Tinajo.
Meanwhile, the island of La Graciosa registered 15.6 liters of rain per square meter in the helipad area on December 13; 7.4 on December 14; and 7.6 on December 24.Despite these rains, the current hydrological year, between October 2025 and September 2026, is being normal on average for the Canary Islands, dry for the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and wet for the province of Las Palmas
