Didnt expect it to show up so clearly!

Easy to spot on this weather image from the Met Office

We were in London this weeked - and we looked very hard on the train on the way back to Leicester (should have gone fairly close) but we didnt see anything...it was dark so we'd probably only have seen flames, but we saw nothing. Quite a few people injured - million of gallons of fuel went up, supposedly heard in HOLLAND

I'm hoping for a clear day tomorrow so that Modis on Terra and Aqua see something.

http://130.92.54.203/rsbern/noaa/dw/realti...ent/n1bcurr.jpg

WOHHH
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets....terra.250m.jpg


Doug

http://saturn.unibe.ch/rsbern/noaa/dw/real...c-corrected.jpg
Another clear view.

We were at the Ice Rink outside the Natural History museum at about 1230 and we saw no sign of anything in the air then - it was a lovely clear day - and the train we took would have gone very close, certainly under all that smoke, but we didnt see a thing. I'm just amazed and glad no one has died.

I'll try and collate all the imagery over the next week and see if I can make a big fading movie. It must be like a horror film down there...


Doug

Im sure I saw a picture taken high above London, probably from a helicopter and the smoke was clearly visible. I think it was on the BBC website - couldnt find it again though.

0900 :
http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weath...sg-0900-uk.html

1200 :
http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weath...sg-1200-uk.html

1500 :
http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weath...sg-1500-uk.html

Smaller SW heading plume today

http://130.92.54.203/rsbern/noaa/dw/realti...c-corrected.jpg

So what happened? I'm in America, we're only told news if an American is involved.

A major fuel depot caught fire - millions of gallons of fuel burning away. 20 individual fires in all, 10 of which are now out, the remaining ten may take up to a few days to put out.

No sure how or why it went up yet - but the explosions were heard from miles away.

Doug

London is completely blanketed by the black plume of smoke from Europe's worst
peacetime fire in this Envisat image, taken within five hours of the blaze
beginning.

Full story at:

http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMTBYVLWFE_planet_0.html

>>millions of gallons

70 millions of gallons exploded.
One explosion measured 2.5 on the Richter scale - its the biggest European fire since WW2.

WW2? What's that?

I'm in America and I heard about the explosion(s)..

World War 2.

I was kidding. But maybe so were you. Oh, what a tangled web I've woven. I shall never joke at another's expense again. Unless the other deserves it.

I have a cousin who lives in England. After the explosion and fire, my mother forwarded to me some e-mails he had sent his own parents.

It seems that, every morning, my cousin would take a morning jog to the end of the local road and back -- and the end of the local road was the outer boundary of the fuel farm. From jogging it hundreds of times, he knows it's exactly 1.4 miles from his back door.

They had a little greenhouse attached to their main house. The frame still stands, but most of the glass shattered out. Many of the windows in the back of the house (facing the explosion) were also shattered, and one door frame was bent a bit.

Other than that, my cousin and his wife are fine. But it surely brought the thing home to me when I read his descriptions.

-the other Doug

Today a fire broke out at the Olympic site in East London...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7090725.stm

I said to my colleage Josh "Oo - 1230, Terra and Aqua might get a picture - when are their passes...AHH...Aqua will get it at 1300 ish"

By 1530 - bingo - the image was on the Modis website at 500m/pixel and the fire was indeed visible!!!

The 250m image just popped up as well

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtim...131000.250m.jpg

Wow...that's a big one! Heard about it on the news, unreal that we have publicly available overhead imagery so quickly...

What happened...did some poor soul not make sure their cigarette was out?

I think the ego of the guy who kicked off our Olympic bid, Seb Coe, exploded.

Doug

Oooo...burn!!!