Falkland Islands Webcams

Category: Panoramic

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately 250 nautical miles from the coast of mainland South America.

Surrounded by cool South Atlantic waters, the Falkland Islands have a Maritime Subarctic climate. Gales are very frequent, particularly in winter. The climate is similar to that of the Shetland islands in the United Kingdom, but with less rainfall and longer and slightly more severe winters.

The islands were uninhabited when they were first discovered by European explorers, but there is evidence that Patagonian Indians may have reached the Falklands in canoes. Arrowheads and the remains of a canoe have been found on the islands. There was also the presence of the Falkland Island fox, or Warrah (now extinct), but warrahs may have reached the islands via a land bridge when the sea level was much lower during the last ice age.

The Falkland Islands have two airports with paved runways. The British Antarctic Survey operates a transcontinental air link between the Falkland Islands and the Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula and servicing also other British bases in the British Antarctic Territory using a de Havilland Canada Dash 7. The Royal Air Force operates flights to Oxfordshire, England, with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island.