Only mid of last week Calima started to reach Lanzarote and I was lucky the first three weeks of my stay on this beautiful island. During this time I never had conditions close what you see on the photo above. I have taken this photo today, while Susan and myself cruised by car around the island.
Below you can see a snapshot from the Air Quality Index website, which I also used during my travels in Asia before. Highest levels I ever experienced in Delhi, Beijing and Ulaabataar were around 450ppm on the PM10 index. Although the 123 shown below are far below those levels it is not recommended to do any outdoor sports under these conditions. Imagine how 450ppm looked like. Clean air becomes an asset.
Well, as usual in life there is a trade off on everything. Looking at the map below it becomes obvious that the islands located further west get less of the Sahara sand under adverse wind conditions. For example, the AQI for PM1o is much lower on El Hierro, only showing 33ppm at the same time. In other words, the more west you are, the less you will be affected by Calima. Looking at the rain pattern it is basically vice versa although the individual island’s elevation profiles determine the final impact. The least rain you get on Fuerteventura but it gets the highest Calima pollution.
It seems this Calima comes to an end soon and blue sky will take over again. We will then wash the boat as it gets covered by this nasty sand layer same time!
Fair winds…
