Yesterday was the hottest day of the year with a new record of 44.8°C

All of the Canary Islands have suffered extreme heat over the last few days, but those in Gran Canaria have had it the worst, where the temperatures reached record numbers yesterday (Thursday).

Tasarte, a village in the municipality of San Nicolás, registered the highest temperatures in Spain, with 44.8 degrees Celsius in the shade at 3:30pm, followed by Maspalomas (43.3°C) and Agüímes (42.1°C), according to data provided by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).

In Tenerife, the heat has also been merciless, especially in the south of the island, where temperatures exceeded 40°C inland in the municipalities of Adeje and Guía de Isora. They were also very similar in the metropolitan area of the island and in the Anaga massif.

The General Directorate of Security and Emergencies of the Canary Islands Government have announced that temperatures will start to drop slightly over the weekend, but that these two islands will remain in an "alert" situation.

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura will say goodbye to the heatwave from tomorrow and the warnings and go to “pre-alert” as temperatures drop to around 32°C.

WINDS WILL NOW PICK UP:
However, as the sweltering heat begins to subside, the wind will pick up intensity. In the case of Tenerife, gusts of 80 kilometres per hour were measured yesterday at the South airport, which forced the diversion of several flights, which were affected by the phenomenon known as shear, that is, the sudden change in the direction or speed of the wind on the runway.

The strongest winds yesterday were measured at the AEMET station in Pájara (Fuerteventura) at 2:50pn, at a speed of 161km/h.

FIRES:
The mountains continue to be on "maximum alert" given the extreme weather conditions, with high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity. There have been several scares that, fortunately, did not escalate thanks to the quick action of the fire prevention teams. One of them occurred in La Escalona (Vilaflor), another in the area of ​​the Centro Hogar Escuela de La Esperanza, in the municipality of El Rosario, and this morning in Los Realejos, in the north of Tenerife.