During 3 ^th, 4 ^th and 5^th February 2013 a very strong dust event occurred in the Canary Islands, reaching a total suspended particle concentration of more than 1000 μg/m³ on 4^th February. These records have been obtained by daily sampling at the Tafira and Pico de la Gorra field stations by the Calidad Medioambiental research group from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It is the first significant dust outbreak since 8^th March 2012, when the particle concentration rose to 1490 μg/m³.

Average concentrations in Tafira and Pico de la Gorra stations are 35 μg/m³ and 22 μg/m³, respectively. Therefore, this event represents an increase of almost 40 times the normal particle concentrations in Gran Canaria Island. During the last 10 years of continuous measurements, the highest concentrations were recoreded on 17^th January 2005 in Tafira and 11^th April 2005 in Pico de la Gorra ( 2315 and 1057 μg/m³ respectively).

Application of atmospheric models, such as HYSPLIT from NOAA, allow us to determine the origin of air masses and therefore the source of the dust reaching the islands. It has been determined that the recent dust came from Algeria, Mauritania and Western Sahara.