05.18.10
Mount St Helens – 30th Anniversary
Today is the 30th anniversary of Mount St Helens’ catastrophic eruption.
On May 18, 1980, the Washington State volcano shot ash 12 miles up into the atmosphere (see satellite image from GOES-3, below, taken at 8:45 am PDT, courtesy of Wikipedia). In about two weeks, the ash had circled the globe.
For more information on Mt St Helens’ eruption, see the Wikipedia article and the Mt St Helens website. The Mt St Helens volcano cam may be showing a commemoration event today.
Volcanoes can affect weather and climate; in some cases, volcanic eruptions have been associated with cooler temperatures (sulfuric acid can block some sunlight from reaching the Earth). It will be interesting to see if the recent eruptions of the Icelandic volcano Eyjallajökull have any effect on European temperatures in the near future.
Speaking of the Icelandic volcano, continued eruptions and northwest winds have prompted more flight cancellations in Europe recently. However, it appears that the upper-level winds are changing, and Europe should be okay for a little while again…