Weather forecast canary island

[rom]

Anyone knows an accurate source ? I've been relying on windguru and windy ... and I got a bad day ! gribs don't know sh*t about local weather and magicseaweed seems to show about the same as windguru, wind wise.

[2big2small]

I get the distinct impression weather models don’t take the islands into account and treat the area as if it were open ocean. All you need to do is apply logic and imagine how the wind would flow around, and through the valleys of the islands. Looking at the geography it’s not that hard to come up with patterns that come close to reality. In all fairness you also need to do a bit of reading about the venturi zones where the wind gets accelerated before you’re able to wrap your head around the whole thing. And of course it doesn’t hurt to do some actual sailing to see what truly happens in specific locations for a given wind prediction.

[boatman61]

If you want good local weather forecasts listen out on VHF CH16.. the Spanish CG do forecasts regularly in both Spanish and English.. and inbetween for impending gale warnings.
They announce on CH 16 then tell you which channel to switch to for the relevant station for your area/island.

[Pete7]

Without knowing better we were caught in one of the acceleration zones with a large No 1 sail up, crew sunbathing all over the deck and lots of personal items scattered about. Probably took about 90 seconds to go from F2 to F7 and absolute chaos. Lesson learned.

Sailing the Atlantic | Weather and acceleration zones - Canary Islands

[2big2small]

In my experience so far, the bad ass venturi zone is the one SE of Tenerife, the others being much milder.

There’s also often really hard wind on the NE of Lanzarote that is not on the map posted above. When you get to Arrecife (midway Lanzarote) you can be becalmed or bump into moderate winds from the opposite direction...

[rom]

thank you for your answers and links ! Fortunately that was not my first "bad experience" here so I started with 2 reefs & half genoa even though the wind was below 20 knots starting from Tenerife. Last week I had 45+ knots TWS on the last 4 NM from Tenerife to La gomera, Global prediction was about 25 knots !

Based on windy's model I was initially trying to reach the north of gran canaria, I ended up having a hard time reaching the south ! I had up to 46 knots AWS @ 50 to 60 AWA.

Windy is obviously taking the islands into account for their predictions, but they don't seem to get it right.

Maybe I should have motored up the East coast of Tenerife before crossing. Like we do along St Lucia before going to Martinique. Not sure the sea state would have allowed that though. Well, now I am going to have a really hard time reaching Lanzarote !!
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[Suijin]

It seems at times that the wind speed double or even more in those zones, and it’s pretty much always windy. The sea state between Tenerife and Gran Canaria is no picnic either. Good luck to you but once north of Canaria the worst is over.

I’d pretty much ignore any small scale forecast for all the islands. The land effect is never accurately accounted for.

[Sea Angel1]

in August 2016 I was sailing from Tenerifa south east coast towards west coast of Gran Canaria. A splendid ride tacking. Stil 5 miles to go. The wind increased also within a minute or so from 12 knots to 40 knots. I had 2 reefs in and the genua reduced 1/3.
But that was still too much and I had to reef further down.
2 months earlier coming from Madeira towards the north tip of Tenerifa the same story. wind increased from 3 Bft to 6 Bft. But in all pilots it is clearly stated that locally you should add 1 to 3 Bft to the forecast. You it was not a surprise for us but anyhow a bit unpleasant. But that is sailing. So for us sailing around the Canariies is not our most favorite area. But from the temperatures ideal. AIr and water temps are excellent. The same situation with sudden wind increases is happening in the Med in the Adria and Croatia and around the Peloponese (f.i. near Hydra) and in the Aegean sea.