The Romans knew the Canary Islands as the 'Fortunate Isles'. Others know them as the 'Islands of Eternal Spring', and they certainly deserve both these titles. However, the south of the islands enjoy a totally different climate to their northern areas and this is because their central
mountain ranges hold back the true Atlantic weather, and Gran Canaria is no exception. Its high peaks, at two thousand meters, many times prevent the clouds from coming over. Quite often it is overcast and raining heavily in Las Palmas whilst Maspalomas is bathing in hot sunshine. One merely has to look north to the mountains in order to see this phenomenon -- large dark clouds looking all the more angry as they struggle to free themselves from the heights. Luckily they don't often win. Here the sun is one third stronger than
southern Spain, being several hundred miles further south. And sitting fifteen degrees west of Greenwich whilst using GMT means that our midday sun occurs almost exactly one hour later -- at one o'clock in the afternoon. In the
summertime it is at two o'clock! So if you are taking care of yourself the local medical advice is to stay in the shade between 12pm. and 3pm. and then use a sun cream.
The air here is usually much fresher than on the Mediterranean; the winters are a lot milder and the summers are always a little cooler, even though it is so much further south -- the advantage of lying one hundred and twenty miles out in the Atlantic.
Most days bring clear blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine although the temperature rarely rises above the twenties during the day and drops comfortably back into the late teens at night, allowing for a refreshing sleep. It doesn't vary much more than twelve degrees all the year round although, like anywhere else in the world, there can be the occasional hotter spell in midsummer.
