Barbados was spared a heavy fall-out from yesterday’s volcanic eruption in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Director of Meteorological Services Sabu Best said just “a very weak plume” of ash and dust from La Soufriere passed “around the mid levels of the atmosphere of Barbados at around “18 000 to 25 000 feet” was already “pushing around 11:30 a.m., roughly three hours after the volcano had erupted.
Speaking during a press conference, Best said the plume of ash took about three and a half hours to traverse from St Vincent to Barbados and at the time of the press conference was already moving to the east of the island, leaving Barbados “pretty much in the clear in terms of any ash or ash cloud” by then.
The Met Office head observed though the eruption had “eased off” at that point it was still ongoing.
However the meteorologist warned the alert level in St Vincent and the Grenadines remained at red, “which means the eruption is ongoing and future major eruptions can occur at any time”.
Two more eruptions occurred after Best spoke at the press conference.
“It is the major eruptions that are the greater concern in terms of ash fall for Barbados because it is those major eruptions that are going to spill a lot of ash fall and debris way up in the atmosphere,” Best said. He added once that ash and debris reached an elevation of 20 000 to 30 000 feet, “it can easily traverse easterly towards Barbados because of the wind patterns”.
The less aggressive eruptions would more likely be blown into the Caribbean Sea.
He said the MET Office was working closely with the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and would continue to monitor the situation over the coming days as they conduct extensive work on their modelling and sharing of products.
Best, who joined Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams, director of the Environmental protection Agency Mark Headley and others for the press conference, said satellite images following the early morning eruption showed the resulting dust plume was mainly lingering around St Vincent, with light deposits being shown around the side of the island where the Argyle International Airport is located and heavier deposits around the north of the island.
Meanwhile Caribbean Airlines announced the cancellation of two of its flights to Barbados from Guyana due to the volcanic activity. (GC)
