Volcanic Impacts to Greenville, SC Weather

6/4/2018 (Permalink)

Winds can spread the discharge from a volcano hundreds of miles, causing impacts to the weather for months.

There has been a significant amount of volcanic activity in the news recently, between Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea and Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala.  And even though they are thousands of miles away, there is a possibility that they, especially Fuego, may impact the weather here in the Upstate.

While volcanologists are not 100% sure how much and eruption can impact the weather long term or long distance, they are starting to get a much clearer picture. They have determined that the size of the particles dispersed into the layers of the atmosphere can cause the Earth to heat or cool. If the particles are larger than 2 microns, they let the radiation from the Sun in but block the heat from the Earth from escaping, leading to warmer temperatures (an expedited Greenhouse Effect). If the particles are smaller than 2 microns can block the Sun and cause the Earth to cool. (OregonState.edu)

How this can affect us locally will be determined by the output from Fuego and how that impacts the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. If the particles prevent the heat from escaping the Earth, they can cause the temperatures to rise in the Gulf, and that includes the water temperatures. The warmer water can lead to more instability and produce more or stronger storm systems to develop. And as we just witnessed with Alberto, storms that come up through the Gulf can have a devastating impact on our region. This may call for meteorologists to reevaluate their predictions for the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

But you do not have to wait to see if we are impacted to take action to help those that are affected right now. You can contact the American Red Cross to how you can help those in Hawaii and reach out to the International Committee of the Red Cross on how you can aid those in Guatemala.