Oooh, a jet!

Contrails ahoy! That's the first one in days - a proper high-flying, condensation trail-producing, volcanic ash-risking aeroplane. Heading south-west too.

Judging from the ongoing commentary on all things volcanic, it's becoming another opportunity to bash the UK Met. Office and, in particular, climate models. Some argue that the (positive) data from a handful of test flights is transparently more credible than the (negative) synoptic output from regularly data-assimilated models that have been carefully developed over years. Even the normally money-grubbing RyanAir has seen through that cheap shot and noted that, in a dynamic situation, a clear air corridor today is useless for planning flights in even a few days time. Ho-hum.