**5. Conclusions**

Results of the long-term wind and wave datasets' analysis reveal a complex spatial pattern of wave storminess around the islands and in the southern flank of Tenerife, due to the intricacy of the coastline geometry, the presence of deep channels between islands, the high altitude and complex topography of the islands, and the sheltering effects exerted by each island over the others, depending on the directionality of the incident wave fields.

The most energetic events are detected on the western and northern flanks of the archipelago, while wave storms detected south or east of the archipelago are comparatively much milder, mainly due to sheltering effects against the direct action of storms approaching from any directional sector, except from those travelling from the SW and S sectors. In this sense, the points in the middle of the channels formed between the islands are special cases because they can receive waves from the NNW-NNE sector.

South of Tenerife, the severity of wave storms shows substantial spatial variability, with larger values in the southwestern and southern strips, exposed to relatively severe wave storms approaching from the SW, as well as to storms travelling through the G-TF channel from the NW.

The timing of extreme wave storms throughout the year in this area exhibits a marked seasonal character, occurring mainly during winter, between December and March, and becoming practically null in summer.

The directionality of wave storms at the southern flank of the island shows considerable spatial variability but reduced directional dispersion, mainly during stormy conditions, the period during which the channels on both sides of the island play a major role, with waves travelling through both channels but mainly from the NNW, through the G-T channel.

With regard to the role of sea water level during stormy conditions, it has been observed that the tidal range during the storms identified as damaging events was, in all cases, higher than the average value, highlighting the significant contribution of the tide to the impact of wave storms on the coastline.

In brief, the results evidence the importance of sheltering effects and the role of the G-T and GC-T channels, allowing NW and NE wave fields to reach the eastern and western edges of Southern Tenerife, with special relevance of the G-T channel through which waves generated by N-NW storms can reach tourist beaches located in the southwest coastal strip. Moderate storms from the W-SW-S sector predominate in the south-central area, while relatively weak storms propagating through the GC-T channel and associated with N-NE wind conditions dominate in the eastern coastal stretch.

Finally, the detailed analysis of specific severe storms highlights the vulnerability of tourist beaches on the southern and southwestern strips of Tenerife to unusual wave storms approaching from the S-SW sector, or from the NNW through the G-T channel, and the consequent strong socioeconomic impact of such events on this strategic beach tourism destination.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, methodology and supervision, G.R.; software and validation, formal analysis, resources, and data curation, D.G.-M.; writing—original draft preparation, G.R.; writing—review and editing, G.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Datasets used in the study can be obtained from Puertos del Estado (http://www.puertos.es/es-es/oceanografia/Paginas/portus.aspx (accessed on 27 May 2021)).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank Puertos del Estado for providing the meteoceanic data used in this work.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
