This Sunday has the phenomenon known as haze hit hard in the south on Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura.
Even before the weekend, Canariavisen wrote about how the sand haze was expected to increase in strength on Sunday, after several days of varying degrees of calima. At the time of writing, the measurements in the south of Gran Canaria are at 354 on the air quality index. It is even worse on Fuerteventura, where air measurements taken this Sunday show 895. This means that the amount of dust is directly dangerous, even for otherwise healthy people.
You can read more about how to prevent illness and ailments from calima here.
As a result of the dense calima, the Directorate of Emergency Management in the Canary Islands has sent out a danger warning on Sunday evening.
With such dust levels, Canarian health authorities ask that people stay indoors, close doors and windows and avoid demanding physical activity (including mountain hikes). You should also make sure you drink plenty of water, and wear a dust mask if you have to go out first. This Sunday, a yellow warning was also issued for strong gusts of wind in large parts of the archipelago. According to the calima model Skyron, which calculates the calima dust a week ahead, the sand haze should begin to lighten on Wednesday.
The symptoms you should look for
When there is calima, you see it primarily on the horizon. When the air turns gray or brown, it is calima. But many feel the symptoms even before the visible dust enters the air. People with reduced breathing capacity or respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD are particularly vulnerable. Calima dust itself can cause breathing difficulties, irritated eyes, dry throat and coughing. The dust also increases the risk of allergic reactions, asthma attacks, respiratory infections and cardiovascular diseases. A connection between increased mortality among patients with chronic heart failure and calima has also been demonstrated. If you become seriously ill, develop a high fever, difficulty breathing or generally feel very ill, you should contact a doctor. If it is urgent, call 112 in the Canary Islands, which is the common number for all emergency services.