What you can see on the Mount Teide webcams
The cable car camera looks from La Rambleta, the upper station, up the last slope of lava to the summit. The AEMET camera at Izaña looks the other way, down the Orotava valley to the north coast, and shows whether there is a sea of clouds below the mountain or cloud sitting on it. Between them they answer the question that matters before a trip up: will it be clear at the top?
Mount Teide webcam: the summit from the cable car
This small picture comes from the top station of the Teide cable car at La Rambleta, about 160 m below the summit. It looks up the steep slope of dark, broken lava to the final cone of the volcano, with the sky behind it.
It is the quickest way to see whether the top is clear before driving up into the national park: on a good day the cone stands sharp against a blue sky; when the cloud is down, as it often is in the afternoon or in winter storms, the picture turns a flat grey and the summit disappears.
Mount Teide webcam: the Orotava valley from Izaña
From the weather observatory at Izaña, on the high ridge east of the volcano, this AEMET camera looks north-west across the yellow-green broom that covers the mountainside and down the long slope of the Orotava valley towards the north coast of Tenerife.
The view is all about the clouds. On many days the trade wind piles a sea of cloud against the north of the island, and the camera sits above it in sunshine with a white blanket below; on others, as on a stormy autumn day, the cloud rolls up over the ridge and the picture fills with mist. The image is renewed every few minutes with the time stamped in the corner.
Going up Teide
The road through the national park climbs through pine forest to the crater of Las Cañadas at about 2,000 m, a wide plain of lava fields and rock towers such as the Roques de García. The cable car leaves from the foot of the cone at 2,356 m and takes about eight minutes to reach La Rambleta at 3,555 m. From there, the path to the very summit needs a free permit from the national park, booked well in advance. The cable car stops when the wind is strong or there is ice on the cables, which happens most often in winter.
Teide National Park
The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. Its sky is one of the clearest in the world, which is why the observatory at Izaña and the telescopes of the Teide Observatory stand on the ridge east of the volcano, and why sunset and stargazing tours are so popular.
When to watch Mount Teide
Tenerife is on the same time as the UK and Ireland all year. Mornings are usually the clearest on the mountain, and cloud often builds in the afternoon. At the top it is far colder than on the coast, often near freezing in winter and sometimes with snow, so take warm clothes even on a hot beach day.
