Tape drive error recovery procedure selection based on humidity

A method, comprising:

• measuring humidity in a vicinity of a tape drive in response to occurrence of an error while performing a data operation on a magnetic recording tape;
• executing an error recovery procedure to remove debris on the tape in response to the measured humidity exceeding a predefined upper limit value;
• and
• executing an error recovery procedure to remove debris adhering to a magnetic head of the tape drive in response to the measured humidity being below a predefined lower limit value.

A computer program product for selecting an error recovery procedure, the computer program product comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media, and program instructions collectively stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
• program instructions to measure humidity in a vicinity of a tape drive in response to occurrence of an error while performing a data operation on a magnetic recording tape;
• program instructions to execute an error recovery procedure to remove debris on the tape in response to the measured humidity exceeding a predefined upper limit value;
• and
• program instructions to execute an error recovery procedure to remove debris adhering to a magnetic head of the tape drive in response to the measured humidity being below a predefined lower limit value.