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Climate and health in Tenerife
The agencies of tourism speak of the island of Tenerife like a country of eternal spring, or a fortunate island because of the general mode, the scarcity of rain, the moderate temperatures favour the life on the street, people avoid the use of clothes for protection and they do not have a heating plant in their houses. Furthermore, they are in a position to swim near their coasts all the year round. The Ocean exercises a balancing effect to influence the climate in a moderate way. There is the so called "Corriente frïa de Canarias" (the cold Stream of Canary) which is a derivation of the Gulf Stream, and acts as a regulator of the atmosphere. On the other hand the winds "alisios" also influence the temperatures in such a way that they are not as high as they should be bearing in mind that the island of Tenerife is next to the Tropic of Cancer.
However, the climate is not equally in uniform in the territory of Tenerife. We have therefore to establish the principal climate differences. In fact, it is not to be forgotten that the island is typically mountainous or near the Atlantic, whose relief and orientation call attention to various microclimates and they vary differently to the health. The microclimates are fundamentally belonging to two categories. One of them performs and creates in the northern zone their own atmosphere , which is influenced by various winds, the so called "barlovento". The other category is the southern zone, where these kinds of winds, the "sotavento", have no influence.
Northern zone
The pedagogic mode would be able to indicate the locality of Puerto de la Cruz as a typical example of this atmospheric climate. It exists in this orientation a spring like season during the whole year where the temperature is accustomed to oscillate between 19 and 23 C with very little oscillations and some rainfall. The atmosphere is more humid, being influenced by the Ocean breezes, if it promotes itself over 200 m , that is to say towards La Orotava – the Ocean breezes fail to arrive and there exists a bigger thermo oscillation with a temperature of 15 – 20 C, lightly inferior to the normal coast zone.
The general mode would be able to indicate that this environmental climate would benefit the people suffering from chronic respiratory, heart and circulation problems.
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