Many long term island residents have claimed that the weather in Lanzarote used to be much hotter fifteen to twenty years ago.  With stories abounding about how shorts and flip flops were de-rigueur all year round.  But now these memories have been revealed as rather rose tinted – as according to official data Lanzarote is hotter now than ever before.

The report into Lanzarote´s weather over the last 48 years reveals that the annual average temperature has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius since records began.  With 1997 identified as the warmest year (22 degrees Celsius) and 1959 the coldest (at 19.1 degrees Celsius).

The highest ever temperature was recorded in Arrecife on July 20th 1953 – when the mercury hit a scorching 48 degrees – which is also the highest temperature ever recorded in the Canary Islands as a whole.  Whilst the coldest day was in Masdache in 1995 when the sun barely bothered getting out of bed and the temperature crept up to a balmy 1 degree!