Flowing clouds over the Atlantic Ocean and Tenerife mountains, Canary Islands, Spain
© MikeMareen/iStock/Getty Images Plu
A sea of clouds
This breathtaking scene on the Spanish island of Tenerife is known as the ‘mar de nubes’, or sea of clouds and is an atmospheric phenomenon that is very common in the Canary Islands. It forms when cool, humid trade winds arriving from the north east cannot rise due to hot, dry air from the south, hanging above the island.
Instead, these stratocumulus clouds appear at a height of between 500 and 1,500 metres, and, in the north of the island, can be spotted flowing around the mountains. Usually dark in colour, at dawn the clouds can acquire a bluish hue similar to the sea. Best enjoyed from high places, if you can hike above the cloud line you will be greeted by blue skies above and beneath you, a hypnotic, otherworldly sea.
Related Images
The Sun Voyager sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason in Reykjavik, Iceland
Winter at the Isis Temple in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Light from sunrise through a sea cave on the Isle of Skye, Scotland
Aerial view of the Amazon River basin near Manaus, Brazil
Boathouse on Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Bamburgh Castle and sand dunes after snowfall in Northumberland
Peggys Point Lighthouse at dusk, Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada
Glastonbury Tor and St Michael's Tower for the start of the Glastonbury Festival
Bing Today Images
