the empire state building is lit up red, white and blue celebrating fox s 25th anniversary launched on october 7, 1996 and i was here 9:00 a.m., has a platforms including our newest box whether launches october 25. erupting volcano causing more damage with lava flows destroying more homes and covering more land and love, lightning flashes around the rim of the volcano probably caused by ash particles the lipoma airport which close because of ash clouds has reopened thousands of people have evacuated islands and to volcano erected nearly three weeks ago.
what about in terms of what it is doing to the air in these erections? are they concerns with people that have breathing issues or other issues. their sulfur dioxide and give ash particles which are very fine. people with asthma and older people, kids, may be susceptible to breathing problems from these kinds of things. i guess the study think for people right now is that you probably have no idea what the economic impact of this volcano eruption will be. it could be problems air transportation. if it goes up to 30,000 feet, that is a problem because the jet engines would suck that action, the engine would melt and it would be bad. you cannot fly through that. a lot of concerns about
you tell me, is the weather proving to be any benefit, or dealing with more tough conditions? reporter: u.s. a bit of both, actually, chris. winds problematic. shipping back and forth. strong at times and that could shift debris if you are trying to do a search or a building that s weakened by the blast. the rain clears the air, helps wash particles out. toxics, things like that. it helps when it comes to any kind of environmental hazard. but it has slowed at least, the search and rescue effort and it will help stabilize fires and put those embers out. good and bad. daylight is the biggest help they have now. all right, martin, we ll check back with you, to explain to you at home, the reason that this weather may be a little bit helpful with the chemical compound they are worried about, anhydrous ammonia means without water. it turns into a vapor, dry, can be weighed down by water, tamped into the ground. that s what we hope happens here. the continuing risk, fire is not
this is an explosive charge of gases and ash thrown up into the sky. and when it s thrown up into the sky, at literally hundreds of miles per hour, it s like 1 million little people rubbing their feet on the carpet making shocks and making sparks, you know, in the wintertime when the humidity is low. you rub your feet, touch the doorknob, you get a shock. this is now rubbing all of these ash particles together, creating static, and the static electricity is one gigantic lightning show. amazing pictures. chad, appreciate it. thanks. air travel is still a mess tonight, not nearly as big a mess as yesterday, although the backlog remains huge. a lot of flights resumed today. even britain reopened its air space. i want to show you what the air space over europe and the atlantic ocean looks like tonight. half of europe s flights were back in the air today, about 14,000 flights. fewer than 9,000 were flying just last night. richard quest is still here in the was, monitoring the situation,
it will turn into a volcano as well. and i ve seen pictures of the volcano, where it looks like lightning inside it, almost. why is that happening? absolutely, lightning. lightning is all the time, with a volcano like this. this is not kilauea like in hawaii where the lava slowly oozes out. this is an explosive charge of gases and ash thrown up into the sky. and when it s thrown up into the sky, at literally hundreds of miles per hour, it s like 1 million little people rubbing their feet on the carpet making shocks and making spark in the winter time when the humidity is low. you rub your feet, touch the doorknob, you get a shock. this is now rubbing all of these ash particles together, creating static, and the static electricity is one gigantic lightning show. chad, appreciate it. air travel is still a mess tonight, not nearly as big a mess as yesterday, although the backlog remains huge. i want to show you what the air space over europe and the atlantic ocean looks like tonig