Holiday Weather In Tenerife
Get The Facts Before You Travel

The weather in Tenerife is dominated by the islands mountainous terrain and its close proximity to North Africa. These factors make Tenerife an ideal holiday destination in both summer and winter. Since Tenerife has a sub-tropical climate, the temperature is warm all-year-round at sea-level.

Furthermore, the weather in Tenerife is quite stable throughout the year so you can plan your trip to Tenerife so your arrival matches the weather you want.

The southern parts of Tenerife are much drier. Because of this you'll find that the southern half of Tenerife is considerably warmer than the northern parts.

If you're planning a trip into the mountains, you have expect that this region will be cloudy at times and quite wet. Furthermore, since you're now at a higher altitude you can also expect the temperature to be considerable cooler than at sea-level.

As a guide, for every 100 metres you increase in altitude the temperature will drop around 0.5°C in this moist atmosphere in the summer. In the winter, temperature decrease can be as great as 0.9°C (since the air is much drier).

That's why it snows on El Teide since its located just over 3700 metres above-sea-level as shown in the photo.

How much rain does Tenerife receive?

The weather in Tenerife is subject to quite low rainfall totals near the coastline but rainfall becomes more frequent as you travel towards the mountains. Having said that the north easterly trade winds
bring moisture to the mountains and this causes the rain to fall mainly on the northern side of Tenerife.

The good thing is it doesn't rain too frequently and so when it does rain it isn't likely to ruin your holiday.

The weather in Tenerife is normally quite dry since it's so close to the arid part of North Africa. Overall, isolated pockets in the northern parts of Tenerife receive up to 800 mm of rain in a year whereas the southern parts has desert-like conditions and is lucky to receive 180 mm a year. Most of this rain occurs in the winter months since the summer receives very little rain (if any).

However, there are parts of coastal northern Tenerife (like the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife) that only get about 230 mm per year. Most of this rain occurs from November-February in between dust storms.

During the summer months (June, July and August) Santa Cruz de Tenerife doesn't (normally) get any rain. What I should say here is that it hardly rains anywhere on Tenerife during the summer!

So overall the northern parts of Tenerife have about 65 rainy days per year whereas the southern parts only have around 20 rain days per year. So you needn't worry about whether it's going to be too wet!

Does the weather in Tenerife get really hot at times? Does it ever get cold?

The hottest weather in Tenerife is confined to the southern parts of the island. You'll notice that as you travel down to the southern beaches it can be up to 5°C warmer in the southern parts during the day. However, you needn't worry since sea-breezes will eventually arrive and cool things down.

For about 80% of the year the weather in Tenerife is dominated by gentle blowing winds coming in from the north east. The locals call this wind (The 'Alisio'). This wind combined with a cool ocean current keep the temperatures almost the same every day. So that means you shouldn't experience prolonged heat wave conditions.

Below is a list explaining what the temperatures are like during the summer and winter months, so I hope that it makes the preparation for your trip a little easier.

During the summer months (June, July and August):

• During the summer in the northern parts, the overnight minimum temperatures is around 21°C and this occurs just before the sunrises. Once the sun has risen the temperature quickly heats up to a comfortable 28-29°C.


• In comparison, the southern inland parts will have roughly the same minimum temperature but the daytime maximum temperature will be around 32-34°C.
  

• Weak dust storms affect the island of Tenerife and this brings with it a hot dry wind (known locally as 'calima') from the Sahara desert. This will be the only time when temperatures may rise above 38°C but this doesn't last long.


• The good thing about summer is that these dust storms are confined to the mountains of Tenerife above about 2000 metres.


• Since Tenerife is an island, both the minimum and maximum temperatures at sea-level don't jump to extremes from one day to the next.


• If you're staying in the mountains above 2000 metres above-sea-level the nightime temperatures will be cool (10°C). During the day the temperature will reach between 15°C-17°C. This is only true if the winds aren't coming from the east since these easterly winds will bring the dust and the hot weather.


• So you'll find if you're bushwalking at high altitudes, the temperature may rise well above 35°C due to the presence of dust in the atmosphere during the summer months. As soon as the winds shifts direction away from the Sahara desert the temperature will drop back to around 15°C-17°C.

Weather in Tenerife during the winter months (December, January and February):

• In the winter you'll find the temperature hovering around 15°C at night before it reaches 21°C during the day.


• The southern parts of Tenerife can be almost 5°C cooler at night than the northern parts of Tenerife.


• Frosts occur frequently over most parts of Tenerife during the winter at higher elevations.


• Fog and low cloud is most frequent during the winter and is most noticeable on the mountain ranges facing north. You probably won't notice this since the coastal areas will be sunny most of the time.
• If you're thinking of travelling up to elevations around 2000 metres then you can expect much lower temperatures. The temperatures will drop below freezing at night and will rise to a maximum of around 9°C during the day.


• You need to travel above 2000 metres above-sea-level to see any snow falling. Occasionally the snow levels may drop down to 1600 metres.




Go to Top of Page




Return from weather in Tenerife to weather in Spain








---