16 April, 2010

what's on today?
todays top weather stories: latest on volcanic eruption and flight chaos, chinese quake death toll tops 1,100
todays weather across america: all the latest developments and future weather
weather talk: in-direct influnces this volcano may have had on britain and european temperature
what's reaching today's blogs?: Signs of the Season Past and Season to Come


Today's Top Weather Stories

On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan

Image courtesy of the BBC

Icelandic Ash Cloud Flight Chaos continues

Latest Developments

**English and Welsh as much of northwest European Airspace still closed at this time but some flights between Scotland and Northern Ireland resume as ash cloud shows signs it has broken up in places...

** Mark Vogan reports a brisk "west wind" at the surface in Lennoxtown, Scotland and although winds are different at various heights above, this would suggest the ash cloud may have pushed further east and south.. allowing clear enough air up through the 20,000 to 35,000ft altitude crucial to support the commencement of trans-Atlantic traffic

What started as a local issue between generally Iceland and Scotland and filtered down the British Isles on Thursday soon turned Global as much of European airspace closed and some 50% of planes flying the Great Circle (Europe to North America) were cancelled.. Flights in and out of Asia and other continents soon become greatly disrupted as a large proportion of global air traffic fly to and from Europe, of course this vast section of airspace are extremely busy and congested air corridors which have been all but deserted, just like a major highway shutdown due to a snowstorm... This is air travel's equivalent to this. (Mark Vogan)

This photo I took this morning around 5am of an overhead electronic sign on the M77 near Fenwick, Ayrshire on my way to Dumfries

(Photo by Mark Vogan) Sunrise over Dumfries and Galloway on Friday morning

Other related stories hitting todays headlines

Volcanic ash flight restrictions lifted in parts of UK

BBC Here

Ash Plume Aviation Crisis May Get Relief Thursday

AccuWeather Here

Volcano could mean cooling, acid rain

msnbc Here

Iceland volcano eruption could last months

Science Fair Here

other news making the headlines

asia

China quake death toll 'passes 1,000'

BBC Here

China: Death toll from earthquakes reaches 1,144

USA Today Here

Today's Weather across America

New Storm to Target California Next Week

AccuWeather Here

Thunderstorms to Spoil Florida Weekend

AccuWeather Here

Strong, Disruptive Thunderstorms for Ohio, Mid-Atlantic

AccuWeather Here

A Bookend Snowstorm for the Northeast This Weekend

AccuWeather Here

Graphic courtesy of AccuWeather.com

Weather Talk

By Mark Vogan

Though Eyjafjallajokull likely won't have weather or climatic influence on a global-scale (FOR NOW ANYWAY), but did this have other "in-direct influences of surface temperature in Britain and Europe the past few days?

Though the continuous eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southwest Iceland likely won't have impact on either global weather patterns or long-term climate simply because this hasn't produced a powerful enough release into the atmosphere, ash and gasses etc would have needed to be forced upwards and into the stratosphere, some 30,000 feet "higher" than the levels this ash at the moment is reaching (between 20,000-30,000ft) in order to catch the very highest, upper-level atmosphereic winds that circle our world and this would have probably been a much more likely scenario for alterations in global weather and or climatic patterns as like we saw with Mt St Helens in WA, USA were ash fell on the East Coast, thousands of miles from the volcano itself, these gasses and ash clouds reached the very limits of earth's atmosphere, circled the planet and ultimately clouded the worlds outer atmosphere enough to produce several years of cooling... This has happened with many major eruptions such as Pinatubo, Krakatoa and other huge eruptions.. Here is a piece from a Science Fair article released today..

"In 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the second-largest eruption of the 20th century (much larger than Eyjafjallajokull), sent a sulfuric acid haze into the stratosphere, reducing global average temperatures about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit over the next year."

Full article Here

That being said, all this recent activity and the mention that in the past, this very volcano in Iceland reacted like it did now just prior to the eruption of a "larger more dangers" nearby volcano by the name I believe "Katyla".. If that was to occur, then this may be a very different story. Many wonder how long all this chaos will last across the UK and Europe, well it depends on two key elements... The actual volcano itself and it's activity and behavior as well as weather... Which is seeing a jet stream flow from Canada, Greenland and across Iceland, where it's 30,000ft band of winds is picking up the upward flow of ash to the jet level and unfortunately, this jet flow is pushing all this ash cloud into the heart of one of, if not thee busiest airspaces on earth, therefore creating the massive problems. Until this flow changes, we are likely to see continuous issues with flights.

OK, so what in-direct weather related influences MAY this volcano be having on the ground here in Britain and across Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries which have their airpspace closed?

Well. The complete absense of airtraffic over this large area I believe may be allowing "clearer" air and therefore days with high pressure and perhaps less obstruction between the sun, it's rays and the surface of earth may allow warmer daytime temperatures and at night, cooler temperatures than otherwise would be with thousnads of aircraft travelling through European airspace.. When you look into the skies above somewhere like Heathrow or New York airspace on a clear morning before sunrise,you can actually see the man-made cloud formed by the vast amounts of vapor trails, which on one particular morning when waiting for a flight to LA from Newark, I could see an artificial cloud formed purely by airplanes... The shear absense of airplanes over Britain and Europe MUST be having even a slight impact, especially with lack of cloudcover thanks to the high pressure in control.... But this is purely my own speculation and cannot tell for sure, perhaps an article will be written on this very topic in the future.

Interestingly. I drove down to Dumfries from Glasgow this morning where the skies were crystal clear and a surprisingly harsh frost was formed... Is this my theory playing out here? Would it have dropped to -2 or -3C had it not been for the lack of aircraft in the sky? Here at my house today, I reached a high of 61 degrees under clear, sunny skies... Wonderful? Is this high pressure cell and dry spell my summers ideas holding? Time will tell.

What's Reaching Today's Blogs?

Signs of the Season Past and Season to Come

Joe Lundburg, AccuWeather Here

Todays US Extremes
courtesy of AccuWeather

High 90 degrees at Norfolk, VA
Low 19 degrees at Gillette, WY

Today's Extremes at my House

High 61 degrees
Low 36 degrees (Frost)

Thanks for reading.

-Mark