Here is a depiction of the area impacted today.

Michele

cmattox,

Sorry to hear your flight was canceled. It is impacting many people. How it plays out will depend on the wind and weather. I plan on keeping up with it so check in here to keep up to date on things.

Michele

WC,

Hope everything works out for you. I saw RTE news at 9 online and they were showing that prevailing winds could cause the cloud to come right down over Ireland. I guess we must wait and see what happens. They are not supposed to get rain for a few days but rain will bring the ash down to the ground. It might turn Ireland into 40 shades of gray.

Michele

Well, I promised you an Ireland trip report when we returned and this is it. :( 

Jeanne, 

How very, very disappointing.  I'm so sorry that your trip did not take place. I suppose the only consolation is knowing you are not stuck in Ireland and having to be back on a certain date. I hope you had trip insurance?

Maybe you will get to go next year instead. Ireland will still be there waiting for all of us to visit.

Michele

Outlook for NEXT week:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0417/1224268541781.html

Bob

This might be a useful chart for you.

Michele

WC,

Sorry to hear about your trip to Ireland. I am in the same boat as everyone else is. In fact I just canceled my trip to Ireland. You can read more about it on my Blog.

As I said at the end of the article:

Ireland will always be there waiting for us to come and visit another time. The land of “a hundred thousand welcomes” will eventually win out over “the land of fire and ice”. 

Michele

Making a very rare appearance..

The ban on flights has been  extended to later today, Monday.

The best site is an Irish one.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055884388&page=21

as they gather in news and photos from a wide area.

Frustrating as your situation is, please spare a thought for the many thousands who are stranded here now.

The extra costs must be crippling for them .. accommodation etc.

There is some hysteria of course, and imagination is hard at work! 

But simply there is nothing we can do except wait and not get upset.

There are safety issues here and better lose a holiday than lose lives.

We managed well before air travel and will do so again.

These forces are nothing we can control; simply adapt now.

It comes after the worst winter in decades; we are up in the Blue Stacks now after being flooded out of our previous house. And trees are only just starting to leaf

NB more than 40 shades of grey, the real image has been and in some places still is 40 shades of brown after weeks of snow and severe ice.

Blessings this sunny day as the cuckoo calls.

Gee thanks!

We had Sisters working with abandoned babies in both Haiti and in Chile when the earthquakes hit there. By a miracle of forewarning in the grace of God, we lost but one Sister ...and no babies lost...  some injuries and all our buldings.lost.

So many extra wee ones to feed too as you can imagine.

So our barrel no longer has even a bottom to scrape and we  are each and all working 24/7 to earn the money to feed these babies.

I wish there were paid work I could do with my very close knowledge of Ireland.

Meanwhile I am selling in the street in Donegal at weekends again. So rare for me to be here; but I knew there would be worry.

And no., we are not covered in volcanic ash... a little has fallen on cars is all. 

The concern is the totally unknown quantity f the effect of this gritty ash on aircraft engines, and reports conflict wildly.

Safety is best, simply; especially as there are financial interests so much at heart.y

Monday April 19, 2010: Irish airspace closed until at least 5am tomorrow. Current chart.

Indeed yes.

The last time this volcano erupted it went on for nearly two years; the concern just now is that it may set off neighbouring larger ones.

At least we have eg webcams etc now; imagine past ages when they had no way of predicting.

Going to the Post Office today to try to post an air mail parcel to Canada; will be interesting to see what they say.

Another concern here is that the eruption will wipe out our summer here.

Ah well; little we can do about it

How awful for everyone whose trips were either cancelled ahead of time or are stranded at the moment. 

Everytime I even *think* about this eruption going on through the summer I start to panic so am trying to keep positive.  I absolutely refuse to believe that this volcano will continue on for two more weeks let alone two years.  No no no no NO.

It just can't. This will be my first trip over and I will cry if it's cancelled.  I'll live.  But I'll cry like a big ol' baby. 

And if I'm feeling this way about my vacation, I can't even begin to imagine how the people are feeling that depend on tourism for a living.  They must be physically ill right about now. 

Yesterday there were more eruptions.

Irish air space was to have reopened on Tues April 21, 2010 at 5 am Irish time. It did not open at that time. It has been pushed back to 1 pm. But the Irish Aviation Authority is reporting that Ireland is in the center of the contamination zone. Dublin Airport Authority says no flights will take place at Dublin Airport today.

Newfoundland in Canada is also being impacted by the ash cloud. 

Michele



-- Edited by Michele Erdvig on Tuesday 20th of April 2010 01:02:09 AM