About Me and Tenerife

I, who write this blog and runs this weather site, is a 50+ guy originally from Sweden, but now living with my family (wife and young son) on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, Spain.
The Canary Islands are known as the islands of “eternal spring” due to their climate. Situated quite far from mainland Spain, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, the climate is kept comfortable by the cold Canary Current.
Thanks to the cold water surrounding the islands, the temparature mainly stays between +17 °C and +27 °C, all year around.
Occasionally in summer there is “Calima” – hot dusty air coming from the Sahara desert in Africa, and then the temperature here on the North side of Tenerife can break the 30 °C mark, perhaps up to 32 °C, for a couple of days.
However, there are a lot of local differences, and microclimates, in different places just a few miles apart on those islands. Being volcanic, with relatively high mountains (mount Teide, the main volcano here on Tenerife, is with its 3,718 meters (approx 12,200 ft), the highest mountain in Spain), there is also a marked difference between the North and the South of Tenerife.
The prevailing wind being North or Northeast, means the North side is much cloudier than the south side. The North side also gets more rain, and is therefore greener, while the south part is semi-desert. The south is also a bit hotter in the summer, and when “Calima” comes in temperatures may reach close to 40 °C.
For us, living here permanently, the choice between North and South was easy. We very much prefer the climate here on the North side, which isn’t markedly cooler in the winter, but much more comfortable in the summer. (This is a weather blog, but there are also other reasons we prefer the North – one of them being the South being way too “touristic”. There are some genuine spots, but overall the whole South is dominated by the tourism industry, and basically didn’t “exist” before it was explploited by mass tourism.)
The south is good for a sun vacation, but not for living permanently.
Here in the North we have a large (huge by Canary standards), green garden, which still need huge amounts of water in the summer. In the south we wouldn’t have been able to have that. At least we don’t have to water it during the winter months, perhaps 5 months in the year, a bit varying between years.