In the current context of climate change, the increase in minimum temperatures recorded in recent decades has received special scientific attention due to its importance for the proper night's sleep and health of the population, among other considerations. One of the main indicators usually considered refers to the frequency of tropical nights (≥20°C), which have begun to become widespread in regions hitherto excluded from this type of event. This paper analyses tropical nights in Spain between 1970 and 2023, addressing their mean annual occurrence, their intensity, their monthly distribution and the average number of consecutive tropical nights recorded, as well as their relationship with relative humidity. The results, based on the analysis of 75 homogenized series located in 44 different provinces, allow us to differentiate seven large areas based on the minimum temperature in which there has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical nights, which progressively extend the season in which they can appear. Similarly, a generalized increase in the maximum number of consecutive nights thermally above 20°C was identified, in addition to the presence of high relative humidity in coastal areas during these episodes.

Nighttime temperatures have a direct impact on the health and well-being of the population, and are closely linked to the aggravation of certain pathologies and mortality. As global warming acquires extraordinary magnitudes, concepts such as warm night, tropical night or equatorial night, used as indicators to evaluate the evolution of temperatures during the night, are becoming popular. This paper analyses the evolution of nighttime temperatures in the Canary Islands since 1950, identifying a very notable increase in the daily minimum temperature, particularly at the summits, where the rate of increase exceeds 0.2 °C per decade. Overall, the daily minimum temperature easily reaches 20 °C in many parts of the islands, with a statistically significant upward trend in the frequency of tropical nights. In addition, they tend to occur over an increasingly longer season, more consecutively and with greater thermal intensity. Equatorial nights — ≥ 25 °C— are still an eminently summer phenomenon of growing importance in certain areas of the inland of some islands. Torrid nights — ≥ 30 °C—, on the other hand, are associated with extremely warm episodes that affect specific sectors conditioned by local factors.

Climate change has become a global challenge that must be faced in a cross-cutting manner from multiple fields and involving all citizens. The educational system, as a space that guarantees the training of students and the integral development of the person at the social, intellectual and ethical levels, should be oriented towards increasing the environmental awareness of society, promoting practices and habits that respect the preservation of ecosystems and, in short, education for sustainability. The 2023–2024 academic year is the first in which the curricular content developed from the Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29, which modifies the Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education, popularly known as LOMLOE, will be fully implemented. This paper designs a learning situation on sustainability and climate change that can be implemented in the Spanish and European contexts, responding to Rosenshine’s principles of instruction, a circumstance that gives it enormous flexibility and makes it an interesting resource focused on helping geography teachers to face current challenges from an innovative, scientific, and inclusive perspective.

The prevailing environmental conditions before and during the 28 Large Forest Fires (LFFs) that have occurred in the Canary Islands since 1983 are analyzed. These conditions are often associated with episodes characterized by the advection of continental tropical air masses originating from the Sahara, which frequently result in intense heatwaves. During the onset of the LFFs, the base of the subsidence thermal inversion layer—separating a lower layer of cool, moist air from an upper layer of warm, dry air—is typically located at an altitude of around 350 m above sea level, approximately 600 m below the usual average. Understanding these Saharan air advection events is crucial, as they significantly alter the vertical thermal structure of the atmosphere and create highly conducive conditions for wildfire ignition and spread in the forested mid- and high-altitude zones of the archipelago. Analysis of meteorological records from various weather stations reveals that the average maximum temperature on the first day of fire ignition is 30.3 °C, with mean temperatures of 27.4 °C during the preceding week and 28.9 °C throughout the fire activity period. Relative humidity on the ignition days averages 24.3%, remaining at around 30% during the active phase of the fires. No significant correlation has been found between dry or wet years and the occurrence of LFFs, which have been recorded across years with widely varying precipitation levels.

The study of the troposphere's vertical structure has been performed in a variety of ways as technological advances have been implemented. In recent decades, data from thermodynamic soundings have been the main support for the analyses. However, the geographical discontinuity of these records and the existence of relatively short series in many of the measurement points make it advisable to establish methods of analysis with greater spatial and temporal coverage. This work proposes a methodology based on the atmospheric reanalysis of ERA5 , with an analysis period of 84 years (1940–2023). Its application to the specific case of the Canary Islands offers solid results consistent with the work published to date. Thus, all the parameters that define the subsidence thermal inversions (STIs), which separate a lower, cool and humid air mass from an upper, warm and dry one in the region, are characterised. Among the trends identified, an increase in the number of inversions and a marked decrease in their altitude—100 m above sea level—stand out in the series analysed, with a significant warming above the inversions and greater atmospheric stability in the region. As a consequence of these changes, significant environmental repercussions are foreseeable, especially in various agricultural and biogeographical aspects.

Forest fires are one of the risks with the greatest socio-territorial impact in island areas with Mediterranean precipitation characteristics. Regions such as the Canary Islands, densely populated and where there is no clear differentiation between land uses, regularly suffer major forest fires that devastate a large part of their forest mass and endanger the lives and property of thousands of people. This paper characterizes the forest fire that occurred on the island of Tenerife during the month of August 2023—defined as the most severe in Spain during that year—from a double perspective: on the one hand, analysis of the exposure and vulnerability of the buildings located in the surroundings of the fire and, on the other hand, economic quantification of the assets salvaged thanks to the intervention of the means and resources deployed by the authorities. The conclusion is that the analyzed buildings exhibit moderate vulnerability and exposure, being high in aspects such as their poor accessibility, their proximity to forest areas and, specifically, to dangerous fuel models, as well as the slope of their surroundings and their proximity to ravines. In terms of the evaluation of what was salvaged, the losses avoided are estimated at EUR 187 million, which would have been added to the actual losses—EUR 164 million—especially thanks to the interventions carried out around the nearby buildings and agricultural areas.