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CANARY ISLANDS

Pic of the day: Canary Islands ‘swimming’ in sea

A satellite image of Spain's Canary Islands in which they are appear to be swimming through the silvery Atlantic Ocean is up for a Nasa photo prize.

Published: 21 March 2014 11:58 CET
Pic of the day: Canary Islands 'swimming' in sea
Photo: Jeff Schmaltz/Lance/Eosdis Modis Rapid Response Team/Nasa

The 'Trailing the Canaries' image is one of two remaining candidates in the Art Section of Nasa's Tournament Earth 2014 online photo poll.

Captured by the space agency's Terra satellite in June 2013, the photo shows all of Spain's seven Canary Islands.  

"The Atlantic Ocean has a silvery or milky color in much of the image, the result of sunglint," Nasa explains on the competition website.

"Windsock-like tails" can also been seen stretching southwest from the islands. The patterns are the result of "winds roughening or smoothing the water surface in different places", Nasa says.

The volcanic islands of the archipelago act as a "wind shadow", blocking, slowing, and redirecting currents of air.

Fans of the photo can still vote for it to take the Nasa prize until 9pm Friday March 21st.    

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WEATHER

Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Summer is finally here! Or least it is if you live in southern Norway, where a warm front coming up from Europe will bring t-shirt temperatures of 20C by Thursday, according to forecasts.

Published: 30 April 2024 08:42 CEST
Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Warm air from southern Europe will combine with a high pressure zone which will bring clear skies and sunshine, with summery weather coming towards the end of the week, Norway’s national weather forecaster Yr has reported. 

“Thursday and Friday especially will be nice,” Ingrid Villa, a meteorologist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told the public broadcaster NRK. “Then we will probably get temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius in some places.” 

Patches of 20C warmth are expected both in western Norway around Bergen and in Western Norway around Oslo, with the area around Tromsø expected to have slightly cooler weather, although Villa said that “it will absolutely be something like summer there too”. 

The warm sunny weather is, however, expected to pass northern Norway by, with grey overcast skies expected for much of this week. 

But if you think summer has come to Norway to stay, you risk disappointment as much cooler temperatures are expected next week.  

“There’s nothing unusual in getting an early taste of summer in April and the start of May, and then we can quickly go back to cooler more spring-like weather,” Villa said. 

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