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Iceland volcanic ash cloud set to reach UK | Iceland volcanic ash cloud set to reach UK |
(about 1 hour later) | |
An ash cloud from the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland is expected to reach the UK by the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Met Office has said. | |
It does not necessarily mean there will be airspace closures but makes flight disruption more likely, it said. | |
The cloud is predicted to affect parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. | |
The event comes a year after ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano spread across Europe, causing huge disruption. | The event comes a year after ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano spread across Europe, causing huge disruption. |
Vast area | |
The Met Office, which runs Europe's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, earlier said there was a possibility of ash moving across the UK towards the end of the week. | |
But a spokesman said the weather was much more changeable than at the time of last year's eruption and there was a lot more uncertainty. | |
The Grimsvotn volcano, which began erupting on Saturday, is still active although the plume, at about 8 miles (13km) high, is not as powerful as it was. | |
By the early hours of Tuesday morning the cloud is expected to cover a vast crescent across the North Atlantic from northern Russia to the British Isles. | |
During last year's eruption UK airspace was shut down completely by the authorities as a precaution but this time airlines will make their own decisions about whether it is safe to fly. | |
The National Airspace Crisis Management Executive is meeting every six hours to assess the situation. | |
Different scale | |
Icelandic air traffic control has created a no-fly zone around the volcano and cancelled all domestic flights. The country's main international airport, Keflavik airport, has been closed. | |
The Grimsvotn volcano lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in south-east Iceland. The latest eruption is its most most powerful eruption in 100 years. | |
However, University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson said the eruption was on a different scale to the one last year. | |
"It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted," he said. | "It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted," he said. |
"That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe." | "That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe." |
The ash particles from this eruption are said to be larger than last year and, as a result, fall to the ground more quickly. | |
Iceland has been badly affected by the current eruption, with ash falling across the country including the capital Reykjavik. | |
Tourists have been evacuated from the country's main national parks and farming has been hit. | |
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