Having lived in Gran Canaria for about 12 years, I am very familiar with the typical temperatures. The lowest I ever saw (not up in the mountains where it’s less) was 13C and the highest was 60C according to one of those clock/temperature machines in the street. It WAS 50C the whole week we had that scirrocco and I remember the swimming pool being hot, the water coming out the cold tap being hot and every shop in Atlantico running out of ACs and fans. It was unbearable but it’s a fact that sometimes you DO get extreme weather in the Canaries. Perhaps the thermometer was busted but the average for that week in question was around 50C for sure.

Perhaps you remember the week in question – it must’ve been 6 years ago or maybe more. And nowhere in the above post does it say that is typical weather. Of course it isn’t.

The rep you mentioned who say it is “frequently 56 degrees” obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about, since it doesn’t often go over 40C, but it can.

I don’t think the occasional scirrocco or calima, with the accompanying high temperatures and accompanying sand/dust is going to “put people off coming over”. It’s common knowledge that the Canaries are warm islands! And most people will look at weather.com or a live weather report website to see what kind of weather they’re going to expect.

But yes, we do get calimas and scirroccos on occasion and yes it does get very hot, especially to people who aren’t used to the heat or sun at all. But I also know a lot of people who don’t like it over 25C who come during the winter months instead.