Flowing clouds over the Atlantic Ocean and Tenerife mountains, Canary Islands, Spain

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Sea of clouds

What you can see in today’s photo is a sea of clouds over the island of Tenerife in Spain, a very common atmospheric phenomenon in the Canary archipelago. These are formed when humid winds arriving from the ocean cannot rise due to a temperature inversion, ending up forming ‘stratocumuli’ between 500 and 1,500 metres high.

Stratocumuli are large round shaped clouds formed at low altitudes. They cannot develop vertically because the dry and stable atmosphere above prevents them from rising. In addition to this, in north Tenerife they have a habit of getting stuck between mountains. That is why this place is one of the best to watch these flowing clouds. Their colour is usually dark, but at certain moments, such as at dawn shown in our image, the clouds take on a bluish hue like the sea.