Mt.Pinatubo... A cooling effect

Mount Pinatubo, an active volcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines violently erupted in 1991 sending a cloud of debris and ash well into the Stratosphere. The eruption lowered Global temperatures for the next year by about 0.5 C to 0.6C or 0.9 F to 1.1 F. By scattering light high in the atmosphere many areas worldwide also saw intense sunsets over the next year. The dark layers high up above the thunderstorms in the sunset picture are comprised of this suspended volcanic dust and debris. This Stratospheric cloud, mostly made up of Sulfur Dioxide lasted in the atmosphere for more than 3 years. This unfortunately had a negative impact on "good" Stratospheric Ozone, though now, as we blogged about in a previous entry, scientists have noticed that ozone levels have leveled off.

Posted by Ted Zarras at 1:25 PM