South Tenerife weather, month by month from October to April
Real climate normals for the south coast, what the sea does, what calima is, and what to actually pack for a winter here.
The short answer: between October and April the south coast of Tenerife averages 21.7 to 26.8 °C by day, 15.0 to 20.0 °C at night, one to three-and-a-half rain days a month, and six to seven hours of sunshine a day. January is the coolest month and April the driest.
#The table
| Month | Day °C | Night °C | Sea °C | Rain days | Sun h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | 26.8 | 20.0 | 23.7 | 1.6 | 6.9 |
| November | 24.8 | 18.2 | 22.6 | 1.9 | 6.4 |
| December | 22.8 | 16.5 | 21.1 | 3.5 | 6.3 |
| January | 21.7 | 15.2 | 20.0 | 1.8 | 6.2 |
| February | 22.0 | 15.0 | 19.3 | 2.2 | 7.0 |
| March | 23.1 | 15.6 | 19.2 | 1.9 | 7.3 |
| April | 23.1 | 16.0 | 19.6 | 1.1 | 7.3 |
These are AEMET climate normals for the Tenerife Sur airport station, on the same arid coastal strip as Palm-Mar. Annual rainfall there is 132 mm spread across about fifteen rain days — roughly a tenth of what falls on London.
#The sea is swimmable all winter, but it is not warm
Sea temperature peaks around 23.7 °C in October and bottoms out near 19.2 °C in March. Nineteen degrees is swimmable for most people and bracing for the rest; the pool in a complex is usually warmer by a couple of degrees in the afternoon sun. Locals swim through the winter, and on 1 January half of southern Tenerife is in the water.
#What calima is
Calima is a haze of Saharan dust carried west over the islands on an easterly wind. The sky turns milky, the horizon disappears, temperatures jump, and fine dust settles on everything. It lasts a few days at a time and then clears. It is a weather event rather than a season, and reliable sources do not support the idea that it belongs to specific months.
#The north–south split
The single most useful thing to understand about Tenerife weather is that the island has two climates. Trade winds pile cloud against the northern slopes below Teide; the south sits in the rain shadow and stays clear. A grey morning in Puerto de la Cruz and a cloudless one in Los Cristianos is a normal day, not an unusual one.