I woke up today and through the haze of coming to what passes for "consciousness" before 12 noon, I heard on the radio about flights being cancelled in the UK due to a cloud of volcanic ash. HUH?? I wondered if it was a belated April Fool! But apparently it's true! The ash cloud is emanating from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. Due to the danger of aircraft sucking in particles from the cloud which would damage the engines causing catastrophic failure, all flights in the UK have been grounded. Not sure now if some in the South of the country (England) are beginning to operate but it's been announced that all flights in Scotland will remain grounded for today at least!! Blimey! Met office info here.
The ash cloud is higher up in the atmosphere so can't see anything here in Orkney, though whether some of it may fall to earth over us who knows. Last summer cars were covered in sand in Kirkwall which was allegedly sand from the Sahara blown across on strong winds!!
Isn't nature amazing?? And scary...... and wonderful!
Would you please see that the planes are flying in July & August? We're going to Iceland in July - and are excited about seeing the volcano. But we sort of can't get there unless the planes are flying.
ReplyDeleteAnd from there, we're headed to the UK (not to the Orkneys, unfortunately), but to visit a friend near Oxford for a few days. Hopefully, we'll get to see you next time.
But we do need airplanes.
I am glad you are not covered with ash or dust. The sky is clear down here at the moment. No planes are flying which makes a change. Look out for sunsets they should be a might colourful.
ReplyDeleteHad a lovely deep sleep - no early morning Heathrow flights to wake me up. Saw some sparkly things in the sky last night - hey, they were stars not planes. As long as the volcano stops exploding by July when I next want to fly, then its fine by me!
ReplyDeleteMary Z - Let's all hope the volcanco has gone back to sleep by then! Perhaps we should make offerings to the Fire Gods/Godesses?! Hope you have a lovely time in Iceland and the UK. Iceland is beautiful I understand - well when not covered in ash - sigh
ReplyDeleteWalrus - Um we have hail/sleet showers at the moment and it's been heavy cloud for some days so no sunsets sadly.
Wendy - glad *someone* is benefitting from no flights! LOL!