The Canary Islands government will test ES-Alert on Mount Teide, Tenerife on Thursday between 9am and 2pm, sending three emergency notifications as part of VOLCANEX Tenerife 2026. The drill is designed to reach mobile phones on the island, with compatible devices set to sound and vibrate when the test lands.
Residents and tourists who receive the message will see it marked PRUEBA, read it, and press accept to clear it. Drivers who get the alert are being told to stop somewhere safe before checking their phones, and they do not need to call 112.
VOLCANEX Tenerife 2026 drill
The first notification will simulate a change to the orange volcanic alert level. A second alert will focus on a simulated preventive evacuation in Chirche and Aripe within Guía de Isora, and it will also target Guía de Isora and Santiago del Teide.
That second message could also reach parts of Adeje, Los Silos, Buenavista del Norte and El Tanque. The final notification will announce the end of the exercise.
Phones beyond Tenerife
The alert is intended as a test, but it could still reach phones in Gran Canaria, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. The Canary Islands government has framed the drill as a way to test how emergency services would respond to a potential volcanic crisis in Tenerife.
That wider reach matters for holidaymakers arriving during October half term, when many British travellers head to the Canary Islands. The system does not stop at a single municipal boundary once compatible phones fall inside the coverage area, which is why the test can spill beyond the main island named in the drill.
ES-Alert timing
ES-Alert is a mobile warning system used in Spain, and Thursday’s test gives residents a fixed window for the exercise rather than a single moment. The broad morning schedule, from 9am to 2pm, means the messages can arrive while people are on roads, at home, or already moving between tourist areas.
For anyone on Tenerife this week, the practical step is simple: read the message, dismiss it, and keep moving. The real signal in the drill is not the sound itself, but how quickly phones across Tenerife and nearby islands register the same warning and whether the exercise reaches the places the Canary Islands government expects.
