LAS PALMAS, ENJOY THE BEST CLIMATE IN THE WORLD

Visiting Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Today, The Grandma and her friends are visiting Las Palmas, the capital city of Gran Canaria.  

Las Palmas is a beautiful city and the friends have been taken some photos for their own digital albums.

Before visiting Las Palmas, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 26).

More information: Relative Clauses II

Las Palmas, officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a city and capital of Gran Canaria island, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean.

It is the capital jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the most populous city in the Canary Islands.

Las Palmas is located in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, about 150 km off the Moroccan coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Las Palmas experiences a hot desert climate, offset by the local cooler Canary Current, with warm temperatures throughout the year. It has an average annual temperature of 21.2 °C.

According to a study carried out by Thomas Whitmore, director of research on climatology at Syracuse University in the U.S., Las Palmas enjoys the best climate in the world.

Jordi Santanyí visits Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The city was founded in 1478, and considered the de facto without legal recognition capital of the Canary Islands until the seventeenth century.

It is the home of the Canarian Ministry of Presidency, shared in a four-year term with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as well as half of the ministries and boards of the Canarian government, and the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.

The city was founded by Juan Rejón on 24 June 1478, with the name Real de Las Palmas. Rejón was head of the invading Castilian army, which then engaged in war with the locals.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the port of Las Palmas and spent some time on the island on his first trip to the Americas. The Colón House museum in the Vegueta area of the city is named after him.

In 1595, Francis Drake tried to plunder the town, leading to the Battle of Las Palmas. A Dutch raid under vice-admiral Pieter van der Does in 1599 was only slightly more successful; some of the town was destroyed, but the raiders were repelled.

More information: Gran Canaria

Las Palmas' seaport, Puerto de la Luz, known internationally as La Luz port, benefited greatly from the closure of the Suez Canal during the Suez Crisis. Many foreign workers migrated to the city at this time.

Las Palmas is a sister city of San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, which was founded in 1718 by about 25 Canary Islanders.

Las Palmas is divided into five administrative districts, which in turn are subdivided into districts, not necessarily consistent with the traditional neighborhoods: Vegueta, Cono Sur y Tafira; Centro; La Isleta-Puerto-Canteras; Ciudad Alta and Tamaraceite-San Lorenzo. 

Las Palmas has a desert climate with warm dry summers and warm enough winters to classify it as a Tropical climate.  

Joseph contemplates some statues in Las Palmas

Its average annual temperature is 21.2 °C-28 °C during the day and 18 °C at night. 

In January, the coldest month, the temperature typically ranges from 19 to 23 °C, and sometimes higher during the day, and around 15 to 16 °C at night, with an average sea temperature at 20 °C. In the warmest months -August and September- the temperature typically ranges from 27 to 30 °C during the day, above 21 °C at night, with the average sea temperature at 23 °C. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare.

August 1990 was the warmest month on record, with the average maximum temperature of the month during the day being 30.6 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded was 44.2 °C, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was 9.4 °C. The highest wind speed ever recorded was on 28 November 2005, measuring 113 km/h. Las Palmas city has never recorded any snow or sleet.

More information: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Annual average relative humidity is 66%, ranging from 64% in March to 69% in October. The amount of annual sunshine hours is above 2,800 per year, from around 190 in winter, average of 6 hours a day, to around 300 in summer, average of 10 hours a day. It rains on average only 22 days a year, with total precipitation per year of only 151 mm.

Las Palmas offers a variety of theater, cinema, opera, concerts, visual arts and dance performances. The city hosts the Canary Islands Music Festival, the Theatre and Dance and the International Film Festival. The main City Festival, celebrating the foundation of the City Fiestas de San Juan is held in June. The Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is known worldwide, and is one of the main attractions for tourists.

The city center of Las Palmas, specifically the Vegueta and Triana neighbourhoods, are included in the tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

More information: Visit Canary Islands

Happiness is actually found in simple things,

such as taking my nephew around the island by bicycle 

or seeing the stars at night.

Andrea Hirata