A sandstorm has been affecting travel across the Canary Islands recently, with many flights either cancelled or delays. Please check with your airline operator before traveling to the airport for your flight.
The storm occurred as a result of unusually strong winds over western Africa which picked up large amounts of dust from the desert regions there, which were transported in suspense in the air westwards towards the Canary Islands.
Lots of images were posted on Twitter earlier showing the bright orange skies above the Canary islands.
@ChronicleLive Sandstorm Canary Islands. #Tenerife pic.twitter.com/l7ETJCLWhV
— Michael Nixon🌹 (@michaelnixon70) February 23, 2020
Spain’s airline operator (AENA) suspended all flights leaving Tenerife and flights in and out of Gran Canaria on Saturday evening. Although some flights are now running once more, many Airports are running a reduced schedule. As you can see below, from the website (https://airport-departures-arrivals.com/spain-airport/tenerife-south-airport-live-departures/), many departures from Tenerife South Airport are cancelled, however many are still running on a delayed basis.
The satellite imagery below from Sat 24 (NASA) shows the sand particles well. The sand cloud is now extending westwards many hundreds of miles into the Atlantic ocean, picked up by unusually strong winds which occurred over the west Africa desert earlier this weekend.
