How is it?

[Cole Parker]

Quick question for Camy, Bruin, Rick et al:

How ashy is it over there? I see they continue to cancel flights. Where you guys are, are you getting lots of ash in the air?

C

[JamesSavik]

Mount St. Helens ashy or Permian Extinction ashy?

[Bruin Fisher]

On the West coast of England there's no sign of ash either in the sky, in the air we're breathing, or on the ground. Nevertheless my colleague who was due to fly to Venice for a long weekend has ended up driving down to Devon instead.

Yesterday teatime I did imagine my eyes were stinging a little as I drove home from work, but that happens sometimes when there's no ash scare.

[Trab]

Yesterday teatime I did imagine my eyes were stinging a little as I drove home from work, but that happens sometimes when there's no ash scare.

And obviously when there is an ash scare as well.

I may be wrong (it's been know to happen a lot) but I believe the ash problem is not visibility as much as damage from minute and rapid impacts on the rotors in the jet engines. Sort of like micro-sized sand blasting, if you will.

This from Ruwen:

Most of the air trafic in North-Western Europe is cancelled because of the ash cloud comming from Iceland, in Berlin also. I hope the vulcanic incident will not mess up the climate for a longer time. At the moment the sun is still shining, but it is pretty cold.

That is another of the problems with ash, reflection of the light (and heat) back into space, causing a drop in temperature. It doesn't affect planes, but can hurt agriculture.

[vwl]

Based on my experience with the several eruptions of Mt. Saint Helens, you may find a thin coat of ash dust on your autormobile in the morning (assuming it's left outside) -- a coating that is thin but definitely noticeable.

Also, you should note much prettier sunsets (from Europe) due to the ash.

[dude]

The REST of the story!

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i73130

[Cole Parker]

I enjoyed the conjoining of incontinence and non-flusing toilets. I'm not sure exactly how Asperger's fits into the mix. I'll leave that one for Trab.

C