EXPERT SAYS ASH COULD LINGER

While Barbadians may wake this morning to clearer skies, a weather official is warning that cleaning up volcanic ash from La Soufriere’s eruption may be a common task for some time.

Director of the Barbados Meteorological Services, Sabu Best, said it is possible that while upper winds brought several plumes of volcanic ash across this island yesterday, lower winds could very well bring it back.

He explained while initial projections on Friday predicted the volcano's ash clouds would not affect this island, a turn in wind patterns resulted in yesterday’s ashfall.

“A lot of volcanic ash was expelled during Friday night, but the trajectory changed from where the direction was heading north of Barbados. The wind pattern then changed slightly and has allowed some of the volcanic ash from the mid to upper levels to make its way direct from St. Vincent to Barbados.

“In checking the forecast for the winds for the next few days, there will not be much significant change whatsoever in terms of direction or speed, so once La Soufriere keeps erupting it is going to

continue to blow this way. Once it keeps erupting, the ash can continue to come here for the next seven days comfortably,” he stated.

However, Best pointed out that while the volcanic ash was being spewed into the mid to upper levels of the atmosphere moving eastward, it later fell into the lower levels with westward heading currents.

“Once the ash plume pushes towards the east of the island, the volcanic ash falls into the lower levels, which may then get picked up by the low level wind flow, especially if the winds pick up and bring it back to Barbados in the low level flow. So there may be an extra delay in it clearing because it is picked up and brought back to the island from the east, so it may not be as cut and dry as one would think, as it only takes an hour and a half to get here from St. Vincent on the upper currents,” he stated.

Best said many Barbadians were wondering why the island was being affected by the ash clouds from our westerly neighbour due to the normal east to west winds.

“Our winds tend to come from the east to the west normally. This is at the surface level, but as you go into the higher atmosphere during this time of the year, the winds come from the west to the east, and with the violent eruption therefore all of the ash and rocks and gases were taken in some cases 40,000 feet into that atmosphere,” he noted.

Best also advised residents to focus on cleaning inside surfaces at this time, insisting that any attempt to focus on the outside should be postponed until the ash fall ended.