Icelandic volcanic ash update
Back | HomeFirstly, news that the eruption in Iceland is still very much on-going with the plume above the volcano reaching to 15,000 ft and sometimes as high as 33,000 ft. You can watch on a webcam (although the weather in Iceland is quite poor so it’s not always possible to see the plume itself through the cloud). Ash has fallen at Lerwick, and the plume is faintly visible in the Northern Isles (and also, I’m told, smell-able!).
The Volcanic Ash Advisories are continuing to be updated.
Given that the upper winds are leading straight from Iceland to us, and will do for some time, it’s currently not possible to say when the ash may no longer pose a hazard (that’s my own personal intrepretation, nothing official).
The restrictions on air travel due to the ash are likely to be continually extended every six hours or so, as new ash dispersion forecasts are produced by the Met Office (in accordance with fixed agreements for producing such forecasts) until there is no longer a risk.
The Met Office has this evening released a quite comprehensive press release about the Icelandic eruption. Do have a read through.
I’m reliably informed by those with better colour-vision than myself that ash is visible on the EUMETSAT ash imagery.
The Met Office has also made available their own volcanic ash imagery. You’ll have to manually select the latest image from the times available.
However, you really can’t miss the ash plume in this special visible-light image:
Courtesy NASA/MODIS Rapidfire. For other resolutions (down to 500 m/pixel) click here. You can also access Rapidfire imagery through the link in the sidebar on the left.
Here’s some pictures from the air of the initial eruption on Wednesday morning.
Virtual Radar shows were the airliners are — or are not. Nothing in the skies of northwest Europe.
A person called Matthew Taylor operates one of those “virtual radar” aircraft tracking systems (got to get me on of those), and has produced some screen shots of the affect of the VAAs, SIGMETs and NOTAMs on UK air traffic. Here’s what the skies looked like at 1120z. Note that flights were being routed south of the predicted location of the ash cloud, generally up the Channel rather than further north. But just one hour later, UK airspace has emptied.
My own observation was that almost everything stayed on the ground today. Those operating piston-powered aircraft in the south of the UK would probably have been just fine operating below the level of the temperature inversion (which is hard for things to cross, either way), although personally I would have not wanted to risk any extra engine wear. As it was though, I spent the afternoon at Cliveden House, a bit north of Heathrow and White Waltham, where the sky is usually full of airliners and SEPs buzzing around lower down, and the only thing I saw airborne was an EC135 — possibly an air ambulance or the police. I did also hear a piston aircraft near Reading later in the day, very much to my surprise.
Further I have heard that the Penzance—Isles of Scilly helicopter kept flying, and certainly nothing on their website suggests that they packed it in, but they are on the edge of the affected area.
