20/03/2013 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—It will still be Winter when you go to work this morning, but when you stop for lunch, it will be Spring.
Spring will begin at exactly 12.02pm and will last 92 days, 18 hours until June 21.
And, it is going to be an exciting Spring for astronomers.
According to the National Geographic Institute, there are going to be three eclipses this Spring.
An eclipse of the sun on May 9.10 and two esclipses of the moon.
They will apparently be of low magnitutde but, weather permitting, should be visible from here in Spain on April 25 and May 25.
Clocks go forward
It is also going to be a great season fo planet watching. Saturn is going to be visible on most nights during the first part of Spring.
Jupiter is apparently going to be burning extremely brightly every night throughout Spring as will Venus from the beginning of May.
The Insititite also reminded people yesterday that the clocks change on March 31 when clocks go forward onto Summer time at 2am.
The first full moon will be on March 27 followed by April 25 and May 25.
But, it is not all good news. People suffering from allergies in Spain seem to be in for a difficult spring as a result of the current wet weather in the country.

The number of pollen grains floating in the atmosphere is expected to double the 2012 level, according to findings published by the Spanish Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC).

The SEAIC warned that if it is warm and dry in May, it “could be the worst scenario for those who suffer from allergies,” whereas if it is damp, there will be less pollen.

That is because the wet weather now helps to promote the growth of flowering plants which release pollen into the atmosphere. Warm weather in May will help these plants proliferate, while wet weather in May would slow their growth.

Around four million Spaniards suffer from pollen allergies, the majority of them living in the center and the south of the country, with large numbers of olive trees coming into flower in spring, elevating the amount of pollen in the air.

Contamination
However, questions such as atmospheric contamination in Spain's largest cities are also to blame given that it allows the pollen to reach the immune system more easily.

Spaniards can easily see pollen levels on the website www.polenes.com, which is brought up to date every day during the months of April, May and June and every week during the rest of the year.

In 2012, applications for smartphones and tablet PCs, including Alergo Alarm and AlertaPolen, were presented to the public.
These apps provide instant information on the level of pollen wherever the user is and also contain an alarm system to measure risk as well as giving predictions over the expectation of how levels will evolve.