Gran Canaria Climate and Weather

Gran Canaria Climate, and generally of the Canary islands, as being close to the tropical circle (the Tropic of Cancer) is making the island’s climate subtropical. Graded as one of the best climates in the world, with average temperatures ranging from 20°C to 26°C is definitely a place where you want to be for your holiday/vacation, or if you want to “dodge” the colder part of the year by staying in Gran Canaria for the winter months.

Gran Canaria's Location

One of the most popular features of Gran Canaria’s climate is that the temperature seems to be constant. The variations are quite mild compared to a classical European or American continental climate. There is no snow, except on rare occasions up in the mountains – the winter season is basically a rainy season. Rain in the winter is randomly distributed over the island, having the southern parts generally spared. Annual rainfall is 228mm (9″) normally in the winter period (33 days with rain per year) with June, July and August being absolutely rainless.

The sun is shining over Gran Canaria minimally 6 to 10 hours per day, emerging splendid 2769 hours of sunbathing per year. The UV factors during the summer season are a thing that you need to watch for – don’t forget your sun-cream – or will be as red as a crab.

Rainy season rainbow

Micro-Climate

As the island is covered with relatively large mountains and canyons, the weather in Gran Canaria can change quite by crossing some small distance. For instance, the south is protected by the mentioned natural feature creating a micro-climate for the popular Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles vacation centers giving them a climate very close to a tropical. It can happen that it rains (or snows on rare occasions) in the mountains and the sun burning on the beach on the south. The micro-climate also causes wide ranges of plant and animal life being present – you have palm trees on the beach, and some 15 km away, up in the mountains, a forest of pine trees and accompanying life forms, a lot of them endemic (lives only on Gran Canaria).

In the winter season the rain sometimes come in waves so you have periodical sunshine and summer-type rain, causing magnificent rainbows all across the sky – a memorable site you must witness.

Gran Canaria Temperatures & Weather

Gran Canaria Weather - Average temperatures

Gran Canaria weather is a blessing – the temperatures are in range from comfortable 20°C/68°F in winter, to a gentle 26 °C/79 °F in summer. Of course, there are extremes, but that is not the situation normally. The most extreme low temperatures were recorded in the mountins (10 °C/50 °F) during a night, and high in southern areas (38 °C /100 °F) caused by the southeasterly winds from the Western Sahara. The low extreme temperatures are quite unknown at coastal areas. Note that the temperatures were measured in shades, so you may add 5 °C to the measurements if you are on the beach, and 5-10 °C for the general south area.

In the rainy season (mainly from November to February) the temperature drops to the lowest, but the rain is making the island beautifully green and fertile. The mountains then blossom with different types of plants and it is an admirable sight to see.

Here is a graphical (right upper image) and a tabular (below) presentation of weather, temperatures and related data (min/max values are marked with color).

Gran Canaria Weather – Meteorological data table

In favor for Gran Canaria weather and climate, let’s conclude this page with a citation from wikipedia about the climate of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: “According to a study carried out by Thomas Whitmore, director of research on climatology at Syracuse University (USA), the city of Las Palmas enjoys the best climate in the world.” (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_palmas)

Related pages

For a current weather report and a forecast check our Gran Canaria Weather Forecast page. Also feel free to check the indirectly related Gran Canaria Webcams section.