Weather School Musing...'Smoking' is bad for your aircraft!
Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:15 am
Good morning,
You may have heard the news this morning about flights in the UK being severely disrupted due to a volcanic ash cloud drifting across the country following the eruption of an Icelandic volcano yesterday.
The ash is invisible, although can cause severe damage to aircraft engines, and there are documented cases of ash causing the total failure of engines in flight.
So, where is this cloud? Well, you can’t see it from satellite, but the UK Meteorological Office (as one of the World Aviation Area Forecast centres) does issue advisories about such events.
You can see the forecast charts of where the cloud will be, and to what height here
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/va ... 309704.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The problem for those travelling is that the cloud is drifting south. Notice how the cloud ‘hits’ Heathrow and Gatwick this afternoon, so that’s when the real disruption could occur, although by then it is starting to move away from western Scotland and western Ireland.
My suspicion is that things are going to get worse, before they get better!
Have a good day.
Simon
You may have heard the news this morning about flights in the UK being severely disrupted due to a volcanic ash cloud drifting across the country following the eruption of an Icelandic volcano yesterday.
The ash is invisible, although can cause severe damage to aircraft engines, and there are documented cases of ash causing the total failure of engines in flight.
So, where is this cloud? Well, you can’t see it from satellite, but the UK Meteorological Office (as one of the World Aviation Area Forecast centres) does issue advisories about such events.
You can see the forecast charts of where the cloud will be, and to what height here
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/va ... 309704.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The problem for those travelling is that the cloud is drifting south. Notice how the cloud ‘hits’ Heathrow and Gatwick this afternoon, so that’s when the real disruption could occur, although by then it is starting to move away from western Scotland and western Ireland.
My suspicion is that things are going to get worse, before they get better!
Have a good day.
Simon
