'Historic' snow-covered mainland picture taken from space

PHOTOS from outer space have shown a rare image of Spain with nearly half the mainland coated in white – but it has turned out to be a useful tool for anyone travelling in the next few days as they know where to avoid.

For some, 'avoidance' may not be their intention, but weather office representatives have warned against making trips out to 'see the snow', due to the risk of getting trapped on roads not yet cleared.

Residents can also see from the picture, taken by the European Space Agency (ESA), where they can safely travel to, since large parts of the mainland remain unaffected – except by low temperatures for the time of year.

The east coast, including most of Murcia and the Comunidad Valenciana and a slightly thinner strip of Catalunya have no snow, other than in isolated, very high-altitude areas – typically, in coastal regions, it is rare to see snow much below 1,000 metres and, at less than 500 metres, normally makes news headlines, other than at most a light dusting which melts within hours.

Again, other than on the tops of high mountains, Andalucía is nearly snow-free, as is Extremadura in the west, and Portugal.

Galicia, southern Castilla-La Mancha and the northern coastal strip across Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria are free from the white stuff, and it is largely absent now in Castilla y León, a large region to the north-west of the centre, above Madrid, which traditionally sees some of the lowest winter temperatures in Spain and the shortest and coolest summers. 

By contrast, all of Aragón, the northern part of Castilla-La Mancha, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarra, most of Catalunya including the whole of its land-locked province of Lleida, and the whole of the Greater Madrid region, remain densely-coated in snow, which the picture shows to be very thick – even in big cities.

To add insult to injury, most ski resorts remain closed due to the pandemic, meaning the usual surge of excitement coming from residents in normally snowless regions at the sight of a 'white Spain' is somewhat subdued at present; although in practice, roads leading up to the pistes would be practically impassable at present, and likely too dangerous to negotiate.

Coastal areas in Spain rarely see frost, so scraping windscreens before work or keeping an eye out for black ice is not part of an ordinary Mediterranean or Andalucía winter, and it is extremely uncommon – although not impossible – for temperatures to drop below freezing, even at night during a cold snap.

But mainland Spain's warmest areas are still sliding into single figures in the middle of the day, meaning January 2021 is not the best time to book a beach break to escape the cold winter in northern European countries.

Although difficult to make out from the above picture – which cuts off much of southern Andalucía – the famous 'tomato greenhouses' in the province of Almería can, indeed, be seen from outer space, as rumour claims; during a question-and-answer session with school children, Spain's science minister and very own astronaut Pedro Duque confirmed this was, in fact, true.