Icelandic eruption and the weather

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Thought it might be interesting to start a thread on this.
eruption in iceland

It seems to be a fissure eruption and after some reading this afternoon I think it is unlikely at the moment to be putting up large quantities of ash into the atmosphere, this sort of eruption does not seem to be the explosive sort. If it starts to, then we could see some particularly spectacular sunsets.

Worries are though that it might trigger Katla volcano which could be potentially pretty devestating, not only to Iceland but also could affect weather on a global scale. Large eruptions have historically caused global cooling and influenced weather patterns.

hopefully fears end up being unfounded

At least from france there's the possibility of tunnel or ferry...he's got something quite important to do next week

Rubbish for anyone affected I know, but I wish we had some interesting geology round here!

Oh it was major Fortean stuff!
It was such a beautiful still day and dd was the first to see them fall. It really was raining (dry) oak leaves and we were catching them as they fell.

There was not a breath of wind and they seemed to come from one part of the sky if that makes sense. It was really weird. I thought it was some sort of Druid sign or something.

Oh bollox... DH wanted me to book him a eurostar ticket online but you need the same credit card to pick up the tickets so that doesn't work, and there weren't many left so if he gets himself to the Gare de Nord they'll probably all be gone by then. He's stuck there sans decent internet access, phone running out of charge wondering what to do... impossible to tell at the moment how long they'll be cancelling flights for beyond today.

otter said they fell from the sky, not from a tree

these pictures appear to show the ash erupting through the clouds into the space above, where planes fly (I'm sure that has a proper name but I don't know what it is )

fascinating stuff

i have to admit that my first thought was " but but but can i still hang my washing out?"

glad to hear it'll be fine

off to read links now

grimma - could your dh text you his credit card details so you can use them to book a ticket?

Yes indeed - supplied with DHs details, I booked him his ticket - the earliest I found available is Saturday morning, but fortunately the hotel he was staying in still had a room available.

I expect he can find something to do in Paris tomorrow, far worse places to be stranded! And he did have the sense to pack a few extra days worth of his medications.

just to correct self looks like I have the height wrong - (serves me right for getting it from bbc) weather peeps saying its at 20,000 ft but temp inversion caused by high pressure should keep it up in right place. will look more a bit later.

brilliant, thats really good news Grimma.

latest met office plume predictions. note height between 6km-11km (so 20,000ft to 36,000ft ish)

Most rain clouds form below that level, so, from an utterly amateur point of view, people dont need to worry about ground impact at this point in time. Perhaps GO and other farmers ought to just be making some contingency plans for how best to deal with livestock as it is easier to carry out a proper plan than try and react in a hurry.

Note from that link, there is no way this will be cleared tomorrow.

Can I just say thanks Kitten - although I heard about todays flights being cancelled from the airport taxi company, there wasn't much indication that this might be prolonged other than your information. Without your heads up (and being pretty sure you are a reputable source of information) DH might have been stuck longer and had the palaver of getting a prescription filled.

you are very welcome.

I'mso shallow - I just thought "oh good, no planes overhead today"

lol! kew, me too!

fiofio

Regarding the pronunciation of Eyjafjallajoekull:

Ey is pronounced a as in "baby"
j is pronounced like a y as in "yes"
ll is pronounced a little bit like the welsh ll, but can be approximated as a tl sound as in "little"
the oe is an anglicisation of the o with an umlaut that the BBC uses for some reason, pronounced somewhat like a short "er"

So it should be something like
A + ya + fjetla + yer - kutl

It's a fantastic area to visit and I highly recommend Iceland to everyone for a holiday (though possibly wait until the planes are flying again)

Just been thinking that this shows just how fragile and irelevant human life is. A single volcano erupting closes down a large part of our economic life across Europe.

It is said that The Dark Ages were perhaps caused by volcanic eruptions. Makes me think that global warming cannot be man made. Volcanoes emit so much CO2 and also shade the earth from the sun with their ash.

The human race is just a tiny pimple on the planet.

Thanks for the pronunciation guide, gc I would love to visit Iceland- are you a native? Or some kind of scandiwegian?

There was a bloke interviewed at lunchtime whose plane had been cancelled - he was supposed to be flying to Iceland to see the volcano

Regarding the oak leaf fall that GentleOtter describes:

It does sound a bit freaky, but the obvious explanation would be a small vortex (a minor whirlwind), picking them up from the leaf litter of a woodland nearby (or indeed not so nearby) and transporting them up high, before dissipating and dropping them all on GO's farm.

It's rare, but I believe it's a known phenomenon.

The high pressure system over the UK are ideal conditions for such things to form as they require stable stratified air, with strong convection currents, though admittedly that's more common when the temperatures are a bit higher.

What kind of air temperature was it when you noticed the leaves falling? And was there much wind?

My DH and I went to Iceland back in 1998 and we spent the first 'night' on the street as our plane landed at 11pm, we got to the bus station at midnight, it closed at 1am and turfed us out into the street, so we kept walking around (all hotels booked up), but it was daylight as this was in early June and it just felt safe to be on the streets, we spent ages in a bus shelter.
Then by 8am we picked up our hire car and explored for a whole week.
Lovely country to visit, but lots of dirt roads.
The 'midnight' sun can be annoying, especially when you stay in a guesthouse with white curtains! They should have blackout blinds in summer!
The only downside is that everything is VERY expensive.

glacier - one day I will def visit. Thanks for pronunciation lesson

There was no wind at all and although sunny, not terribly warm. It was about 11 am.
We had been watching the Red Kites flying above the farm and then the leaves came down and started to lie in the farmyard but nowhere else. It was completely astonishing and very beautiful.
We live just on the tree line quite high up.

Quote: It is said that The Dark Ages were perhaps caused by volcanic eruptions. Makes me think that global warming cannot be man made. Volcanoes emit so much CO2 and also shade the earth from the sun with their ash.

The human race is just a tiny pimple on the planet.

BeenBeta -
Though I agree we are indeed a tiny pimple on the face of the earth, volcanoes don't actually emit much CO2 compared with anthropogenic emissions.

On average, volcanoes emit about 0.15 Gt/year of carbon, compared to about 7 Gt/year of human related sources, although of course over the long term of millions of years the former is very significant for the planet's atmosphere and keeps us nice and cosy (or rather it did before we started mucking around).

The ash and more significantly the sulphates that volcanoes emit are more significant to temperature, but only on a short time scale. It really matters where the volcano is. So, Mt. Pinatubo, close to the equator (where the ash tends to get spread around the globe more effectively) caused a depression in global average temperature for about 18 months to 2 years, but Icelandic volcanoes are much closer to the pole, so the ash they emit isn't generally as widely distributed and they have much less of a global impact, though it may still be significant locally and very much depends on the length of the eruption. Laki 1783-4 was so significant because it lasted 8 months for instance.

Ok lecture over

Ponders - no I'm not a native, but I did my PhD in Iceland, and I know this area a little bit.

While each human may be a pimple, with billions of us we're more like a rather nasty rash.