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All about the island of La Palma, in the Canaries.

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Saturday, 9 February 2008

Snow

The Isaac Newton Telescope in the snow


So here we are in this lovely sub-tropical island, land of eternal spring. And the top of the mountain is covered with snow.

Last night's rain turned into a storm, with far too much thunder and lightning to sleep through. It went on for hours.

And this morning, I could see snow on the mountain. Not just the peak (the Roque de los Muchachos at 2426 m or 7,959 ft), which was covered in cloud, but much lower down, too.

Of course, we only ever get snow at high altitude, and these days, we don't get snow every winter. But when it snows, it can dump several feet in one night.

The Roque is one of the three best sites in the world for astronomy, so there's a major international observatory up there. Of course, they expect occasional snow, so they're geared up for it. They have 4x4 vehicles, and in winter they carry snow chains and shovels, just in case. Unless it's cloudy, they carry right on observing.

This is the Isaac Newton Telescope, looking Christmassy.

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2 Comments:

At 9 February 2008 20:27:00 WET , Blogger Pamela Heywood said...

OMG! I didn't realize that you also got snow on your mountaintops.

And wasn't that storm loud?

 
At 9 February 2008 20:37:00 WET , Blogger Sheila, Canary Islands said...

It was the lightning that surprised me. Even through the curtains, it was like flicking the lights on for half a second.

And how do you think Pico de la Nieve got it's name?

 

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