When the rain came down on Lanzarote

A freak rainstorm caused widespread chaos in Costa Teguise and Arrecife last month.

On Lanzarote in the 21st century an average of 93.26 mms (litres per square metre) falls every year. However, on Saturday 12th April, many parts of Costa Teguise received more than that in just two hours after lunchtime as the heavens suddenly opened.

The cause was a highly localised storm that affected a relatively narrow band of the island from Arrecife to Costa Teguise and further north to Tahiche. Unlike many Lanzarote rain showers which last for a few minutes, the intense rain persisted for at least two hours.

The results were shocking, as usually-dry barrancos (ravines) turned into rushing torrents of muddy water and roads turned into rivers. The Guardia Civíl were forced to close off Costa Teguise entirely for a while as the roads had been covered in mud and rocks, and the underpass from Arrecife to San Bartolomé was just one of several roads that was completely flooded.

Emergency services attended more than 200 incidents, mainly related to flooding of homes, garages and commercial properties, and Costa Teguise suffered power cuts, while tourists were evacuated from some hotels. Several cars were seriously damaged.

Local authorities have been criticised for not announcing a state of emergency until well after the floods had started, although a pre-alert had been issued to emergency services a few hours before the storm. However, Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort and Enrique Espinosa, head of Lanzarote’s Emergency Consortium have both stated that the storm was “sudden” and “unexpected.”

The storm was the worst incident to yet occur in what has been an unusually wet and cool spring on Lanzarote, which has seen the arrival of poor weather related to at least five Atlantic storms.