Black cloud from oil depot, can you see it?

[bakedpotatohoho]

It's huge
Very doomy looking
(I'm in N London, it's coming over from east)

I might jump!

Certainly jumped when the first one woke us up, the whole house shook!

I'm near Wimbledon and the explosion woke me up.
Apparently it was heard as far away as Holland

The pollution would appear to have made it's way here, big black cloud over the house.

It's foggy here, a bit grey but it couldn;t possibly be due to the explosion, we're miles away

wow, just seen the satellite piture here

Just been into St Albans Christmas shopping (traffic so bad too me an HOUR to go five miles. But was on a bus so couldn't turn round). Huge black cloud over St A, almost as if daytime has been switched off and it is twilight. You can see it from home but it's in the distance, not directly affecting us.

Bizarre cloud though, structure is like a mountain range only made of cloud. Odd to see cloud that starts on the ground IYSWIM.

heard in Holland?

MIL reckons she heard it in oxfordshire...
were in Reading and like pineneedle said the sky is black...

god I haven't even heard about this? what happened? must scurry onto the BBC....

wow, horrible. what a nightmare! Hope all of you nearby are doing ok in your sealed houses.

it is coming this way

I didn't hear it down here (Streatham), but then again I was up with DS2 until 3.30am, so I probably would have slept through it if it had been next door!

We walked down to the high street earlier to take DS1 to see Narnia, and the smoke was really visible in the sky. The southern half of the sky was a lovely blue, but the rest was covered with a streaky black haze. It was eerie tbh. By the time we came out the black had retreated, I assume the wind has changed?

Just been to Tesco in Hatfield and you can see it from there. Can't see it from my house tho.

just driven back from stevenage and you can see it looming over. smells a bit funny round here as well, not got the usual CPUK smell.

that you are all ok

Well just in case anyone is interested today looks like a dark winter day. The sky is opaque grey/white. The black smoke from the fire is now in smaller puffs rather than the steady pall we saw yesterday.

Can anyone tell me what the weather is like in other areas? Is the sky here dark and opaque because of the fire or is that just the weather today all around the country?

Reckon it must be because of the fire Anorak. We're only about 15 miles away from Hemel and have been completed unaffected. Think the sound only carried south, as we didn't even hear it, and I'm awake at that time of the morning anyway!

Sky today is bluey white here. Like a nice crisp winter's morning!

Sky is blue in Milton Keynes. - and we didn't hear any explosions...probably because we were fast asleep

We were fast asleep too - until our house shook and we heard a noise like the roof coming off!

I think the firemen must be having some success. The sky over in that direction is clearing a bit and I can see some blue stuff through the grey/white now. Hooray!

goos news re blue sky anorak - didn't you say that you're only a few miles away from it?

About 4 or 5 miles away.

this will cheer many mumsnetters up 'McDonald?s make half its buns at a bakery 400 yards from the fire. Staff have been told to stay at home until further notice.'

Serenity, we are also in Streatham and heard a mysterious loud noise at around 6am. We did not listen to the radio in the morning, so knew nothing of the explosion until around midday. We had gone to Box Hill for a walk, and someone else pointed out the odd black cloud and asked whether we thought it was the smoke from the oil fires.

See, that's what motherhood does to you! Dkids moving about, awake like a shot - biggest oil explosion in Europe, sleep right through!