You’ll have heard about the Icelandic volcano and the ash that it’s spread over northern Europe, grounding plans across the UK.
Well, the Met Office are predicting that the cloud of volcanic ash will be coming over the Isle of Wight by about 6pm this evening.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAAC), which monitors this over nine centres around the world, must be working overtime and have issued maps predicting the movement of the clouds of ash.
Maps predict coverage
The lines on the map that the Met Office is distributing correspond to the height of the ash. Red shows the height to be between the ground and 20,000 feet; Green is 20k to 35k feet; Blue, 35k to 55k feet.
The simulation shows the Island engulfed by the Red line.
The predictions are that by midnight tonight, the Island will continue to be affected as the cloud continues to move south to Northern France.
Estimates of what will happen after that have not been calculated yet.
For background – the reason that planes have been grounded is that Volcanic ash jams machinery, including the engines. Not exactly what you want when you’re in a plane.
Many thanks to Chris for pointing this out to us.
Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAAC)
Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.
images: Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres
