In the past week, the islands have experienced exceptional weather including strong rain, over 3000 bolts of lightning, heavy dust and strong waves. These were caused by masses of warm, humid air blowing over from Africa.

The hot air has now moved away and the Canary Islands will go back to their standard blue sky weather as of tomorrow. All rain and wave alerts are now over although there may be the odd shower today as things settle. 

The freak conditions meant that people gathered in Gran Canaria to watch the Perseid meteor shows got a spectacular lightning display instead. It was too cloudy for meteors, but the lightning was the most intense for many years in the Canaries.

The full extent of the week's rainfall in the Canary Islands, and especily Tenerife, hasn't emerged but it was definitely the strongest summer rain since August 2005 (the only previous example of August rain in the Canary Islands). 

See you on the (sunny) beach.