londonsnow

it looks like earl is reaching its peak with 145 mph sustained winds on the latest update. a very dangerous hurricane. the conveyorbelt of cyclones continues in the atlantic with a possible hermine lining up behind gaston

i see danielle has achieved cat 3. v impressive

what a wierd feature td5 is proving to be.seems to be developing again, maybe it'll hit florida as a weak td

obviously we are peek "silly season" in the media at the moment and i guess this organisation have tried to capitalise on this, again. the sunday mirror should know better than churn out this tosh. but as i work alongside the media industry i'm not surprised. it's been going on for years. the real culprits are the claptrap organisation who perpetuate this utter nonsense for publicity means. shameless. a waste of paper and time. hopefully the meto wont get the rap if we get a decent september. LS

1. winter. love the cold, frost, snow, gales etc2. autumn. the mist, the smell of leaves, the occasional indian summer temps3. spring. for its northwesterlies which can throw everything at the uk. however number 3 because it leads into summer4. summer. i sound like a killjoy but when you suffer from bad hayfever summer can be a bane. i sneeze and have itchy eyes from may till about now. also, in london the heat can make for very uncomfortable living and travelling. the tube is a nightmare. thank god i'm moving out west!

colin was a non affair it seems. but after bonnie, maybe if he had been named clyde things might have been different...

maybe td4 will stir up the atlantic finally

nice little storm in bath, somerset today

ground frost on the cards tomorrrow in the glens. or grass frost as they are now calling it on the bbc. why? whilst summer has a way to go, i'm avid for autumn

i also think alex may end up a hurricane, at most a cat 1. the last hurricane alex was of course hurricane alex higgins, or hurricane higgins as he was fondly referred to in the halcyon part of his snooker career

blimey, the gfs is bringing frost into the equation in FI for the north. highly unlikely, but not a good overall outlook. good for the gardens though

i concur laserguy. hate the heat, unless i'm by the sea.. roll on autumn

thanks SnowBear

i was thinking just that this morning OO-N. Drought conditions a real possibility with the current synoptics

does anyone know the phonetic pronounciation of the eyja volcano?

this is my worst time of year. summer heat in london is mostly hideous give or take the odd storm. so i'm looking forward to the onset of autumn

12 degs and cloudy. about as useful a day as a hung parliament. which is a coincidence. this week looks v anodyne

me! been saying it for days

has anyone seen any media coverage regarding the katla threat?

many thanks for that link mondy. i guess what happens next is up to earth and atmosphere, i shall be keeping a close eye on katla though. londonsnow

katla appears to be a concern. what i'm intrigued with is the possible impact of an lp moving into iceland in the very near future, dumping ash into the sea, rapidly

i thought katla and Ej were connected

this from a pilot friend of mine > THE SCIENCE OF IT ALL... > > Aircraft avoid any airspace that has volcanic ash in it for a simple > reason: the ash can wreck the function of propeller or jet aircraft, > because it is so fine that it will invade the spaces between rotating > machinery and jam it – the silica melts at about 1,100C and fuses on > to the turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes (another part of the > turbine assembly), which in modern aircraft operate at 1,400C. > > That, in turn, can be catastrophic – as the crew of two aircraft, > including a British Airways Boeing 747, discovered in 1982 when they > flew through an ash cloud from the Galunggung volcano in Indonesia. On > both planes, all four engines stopped; they dived from 36,000ft (11km) > to 12,000ft before they could restart them and make emergency > landings. > > That's not the only problem. Ash can pit the windscreens of the > pilot's cabin, damage the fuselage and light cover, and even coat the > plane so much that it becomes tail-heavy. At runways, ash creates an > extra problem because takeoffs and landings will throw it into the air > again – where the engines can suck it in and it will create horrific > damage to moving parts that suddenly find themselves in contact. > > The Icelandic plume has been thrown to between 6km and 11km into the > atmosphere – exactly the height that aircraft would be flying. > > Passengers on the BA flight that hit the cloud in 1982 said the > engines looked unusually bright: soon after all four flamed out. "I > don't believe it – all four engines have failed!" said the flight > engineer. The crew were prepared to ditch, and the captain told the > passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We > have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our > damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much > distress." > > Luckily, three of the engines could be restarted. The plane landed > safely, and nobody was injured. > > The problem with such ash is that it is extremely fine – less than 2mm > in diameter, and in the case of fine ash only 6 microns in diameter – > which means that it is easily carried by the wind; and because it is > ejected by enormously hot air from a volcano it will often be thrown > high into the jetstream at exactly the height that aircraft like to > fly. The ash particles' light weight means that they will then remain > there, dispersing so slowly it can take two to three years for them to > vanish. > > The measures taken today – clearing UK airspace from noon until at > least 6pm – are a precaution, but a sensible one. Once ash has got > into an engine, it is all but impossible to remove because it is so > fine; no amount of washing will get every piece out. It pollutes > filtration systems, electrical and avionic units – and the > accompanying sulphuric acid aerosol can eat into rubber parts. > > In all, more than 60 planes have been written off by ash damage. The > US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put the benefit to > aviation of better avoidance of volcanic ash at around $58m annually. > > For that reason, the world is split into nine regions, each with its > own volcanic ash advisory centre; the one covering Iceland and the UK > is based in London. The London one put out an advisory last night but > its forecast for the progress of the cloud suggests that it will have > spread widely over northern Europe by the early hours of Friday > morning.

fear not, natures balancing act will soon sort things out. get the umbrella ready

can't help feeling that we are about to skip from a noneventful spring into another wet summer. is the damn jet going to do what it did last year? 6z certainly chilly in the short and long term, but mostly dry with occasional frost. that chart eugene flagged up is the stuff of misery for those with fruit trees/orchards, but it's a way off so hopefully it wont be as cold as that