Highlights
A giant ash cloud from a volcano in Eastern Russia has caused massive disruptions in air traffic into Alaska and blanketed a Peninsula in Russia. Ash from the Shiveluch volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula spewed as high as 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) and laid an 8-inch layer of dust on the land down wind. Dozens of flights in and out of Alaska have been cancelled. The eruption began Tuesday, the first one since Shiveluch erupted in 2007.
Given the jet stream often goes across Alaska southeast into the Midwest, if the eruption continues, there will be significant periods of very unusual weather in various parts of the Lower 48 States. The Corn Belt drought of 1980 was caused by the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington on 18 May, 1980.
Tidbits
Just after Germany's last nuclear electricity generating power plant had been shut down as part of Germany’s green energy program, it was announced a 45% increase in electricity prices.
Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have defied the EU central government and blocked Ukrainian grain from entering their countries. For more than a year, depressed grain prices in those four countries as well as Romania have been a source of contention.