LOCAL residents and tourists visiting the Canary Islands for the Easter holidays are being urged to exercise caution as the fabled ‘calima’ weather phenomenon sweeps in from the Sahara Desert.
An extraordinary 1,300km-long wall of dust exceeding the length of the United Kingdom is being powered by a low pressure storm system towards the Spanish archipelago, located around 100km off the northwest coast of Africa.
The calima has already made landfall in the eastern islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura and is expected to encompass the entirety of the territory and increase in intensity over the next 24 hours.
Aemet, the state weather agency, has warned that the microscopic suspended particles kicked up from desert sand will severely reduce air quality, with visibility dropping to just 3,000 metres in some areas – especially at altitude.
Health experts are advising people with respiratory diseases to take precautions – such as wearing masks when outside or avoiding leaving home – as the sky turns a whitish-orange hue.
Residents are also advised to keep windows and doors closed to prevent the dust seeping inside, and to avoid heavy exercise outdoors.
Drivers hitting the road should reduce speed and use headlights in areas of poor visibility – particularly on mountain roads.
The worst of the calima is forecast to hit from midday to today, with conditions gradually improving on Wednesday.
However, the sandy conditions will likely linger in the popular islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife until the late evening.
The dust storm has already caused carnage in northern Africa, with footage shared on social media showing a colossal wall of sand flattening the arid plains of Mauritania.
Towns in Morocco have also been cast a deep shade of orange in a taste of what is to come for the millions living in or visiting the Canaries.
The calima – expected to be the most severe episode of the weather phenomenon in years – comes just days after the islands were rattled by what meteorologists described as ‘the storm of the decade’.
The normally sun-drenched Canaries soaked up almost a week of torrential rainfall as not one but two fronts from the record-breaking Storm Therese wreaked havoc across the archipelago.
Thousands of British tourists and local expats were left stranded as heavy rainfall and strong gusts triggered frightening rockfalls, cut off roads and forced the rescue of sailors trapped in choppy waters out at sea.
Local authorities triggered an emergency plan, shutting down dangerous routes and closing educational centres.
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