Earth Changes
The first domestic aircraft landed at Bariloche, Argentina, in more than three months commenced on Saturday (17 September) while residents began the process of returning to their homes close to the volcano.
Bariloche is an Andean town about 60 kilometers southeast of the eruption center. At the time, winds blew the ash plume from Puyehue Cordón Caulle towards the northwest, away from the town. An airport spokesperson expects future traffic to be dependent on the weather.
The above natural-color satellite image shows Puyehue Cordón Caulle and the surrounding area at roughly local noon on September 17. A pale plume of volcanic gas and ash streams to the northwest from the active vent. The September 15 status report from the Chilean National Service of Geology and Mining (SERNAGEOMIN) stated that the eruption continued at a low level.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC. Instrument: Terra - MODIS
In the ski resort of St Moritz, in the southeast canton of Grison, a total of 45 centimetres (nearly 18 inches) of snow was recorded on Monday morning, it said. The weather agency said the high levels of precipitation were due to a cold front which lowered the snow line to 800 metres (2,600 feet).
Rainfall was also higher than usual, with around 100 liters per square meter measured in the town of Santa Maria, also in Grison, the highest level since records began in 1901, Meteosuisse said.
The snowfall also provoked traffic disturbances in the mountains, with the St Bernard, Flueela and Nufenen passes closed, according to ViaSuisse, which reports on the condition of Swiss roads.
The Gothard, Lukmanier and Oberalp passes are also covered in snow, it added.

Residents wade through a flooded street caused by an approaching typhoon in Nagoya, Japan, on Tuesday.
A major hurricane that could hit Tokyo or Kyoto overnight has already triggered floods, left two people missing and forced officials to urge 1.3 million people in central Japan to evacuate.
Typhoon Roke could make landfall closer to Kyoto Tuesday night if it moves to the west of the forecast track, Rick Knabb, The Weather Channel's tropical weather expert, told NBC News.
"If it goes right at Tokyo, landfall near there might be roughly 2-4 a.m. ET," he added. "If it goes far enough right of track, the center could miss Japan altogether, but still with significant effects there."
Public broadcaster NHK said about 1.3 million people have been advised to leave their homes due to rising rivers. In the city of Moriyama, 80,000 residents were ordered to evacuate.
Heavy rains as the storm approached caused floods and road damage in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi state government said.

In this Oct. 19, 2010 aerial photo, Mount Tambora's 10 kilometers (more than 7 miles) wide and 1 kilometer (half a mile) deep volcanic crater, created by the April 1815 eruption, is shown. Bold farmers routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanos in Indonesia, but those on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month, Sept., 2011.
Villagers like Hasanuddin Sanusi have heard since they were young how the mountain they call home once blew apart in the largest eruption ever recorded - an 1815 event widely forgotten outside their region - killing 90,000 people and blackening skies on the other side of the globe.
So, the 45-year-old farmer didn't wait to hear what experts had to say when Mount Tambora started being rocked by a steady stream of quakes. He grabbed his wife and four young children, packed his belongings and raced down its quivering slopes.
"It was like a horror story, growing up," said Hasanuddin, who joined hundreds of others in refusing to return to their mountainside villages for several days despite assurances they were safe. A dragon sleeping inside the crater, that's what we thought. If we made him angry - were disrespectful to nature, say - he'd wake up spitting flames, destroying all of mankind."
It's been pretty intense and some ski resorts (which were predicted not to see any snow again a few years ago) received as much as 50 centimeters of new snow. In the summer.
An unexpected summer snowstorm has covered pretty much all places of Tyrol that are above 700 meters above the sea level, including its capital Innsbruck which is just 574 meters above the sea level. Many children were made happy; many drivers were made unhappy. Children who like to drive had mixed feelings.
Much like all interesting and uninteresting weather events on Earth and beyond, this fun was brought to you by man-made global warming that was caused by CO2 emissions from industrial companies and viewers like you. Thank you. ;-)
With Hintertux reporting 40cm of fresh snow over the weekend and the Molltal Glacier in Austria reporting a further 50cm, it looks as though winter is well and truly on its way to the Alps.
For the latest snow conditions check out the Ski Club's Snow reports.
To take a look for yourself visit the Ski Club's webcam pages.
The view on the ground on Monday 19th September:

The big freeze: Snow is expected to hit Britain as soon as next month, forecasters have warned (snow in south London pictured last December)
Temperatures over the next three months will plummet to below average with one long-range forecaster predicting snowfalls in October.
James Madden, of Exacta Weather, said: 'I expect to see the first signs of some moderate to heavy snowfalls as early as October or November in certain parts of the UK.
'I expect December, January and February to experience below-average temperatures, with the heaviest snowfall occurring within the time frame of November to January across many parts of the UK.
A search-and-destroy advisory that went out included this bit of history: the last time the giant snails were found in Florida (back in 1966) they had multiplied from three to 18,000 in seven years and cost $1 million to eradicate.
The new population of giant African land snails was found in Miami-Dade County, and several dozen technicians were quickly dispatched to search them out.
About 1,000 were found Thursday within a one-square-mile radius, the Miami Herald reported. Several hundred were found in one backyard in Coral Gables. How they got there was not immediately known.
The snails were sent to freezers to be frozen to death.
Why worry? Besides their intimidating size - up to 8 inches long and 4 inches in diameter - "they consume at least 500 different types of plants, can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco, and can carry a parasitic nematode that can lead to meningitis in humans," the Florida Department of Agriculture said in a statement Thursday.
"There is nothing surprising in this earthquake as the region north of Sikkim, which forms the outliers of Tibetan tectonics, is known for moderate earthquakes in the past," C.P. Rajendran at the Indian Institute of Science here told IANS.
But what makes it different is its "unusually greater magnitude".
These earthquakes are different in the sense they are along the somewhat north-south structures trending transverse to the east-west Himalayan axis, Rajendran said. They are different from the usual Himalayan thrust earthquakes that are caused by the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate.
According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm ofRoke'sstrength (category 1)at landfall includes:
- Storm surge generally 1.2-1.5 metres (4-5 feet) above normal.
- No real damage to building structures.
- Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery, and trees.
- Some damage to poorly constructed signs.
- Some coastal road flooding and minor pier damage.











