A plume of ash from Iceland's Grimsvotn Volcano may reach Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg tonight, but is unlikely to cause any problems, a weather expert said on Wednesday.
"I have analyzed the latest maps from the British meteorological service. A volcanic ash plume may approach our city overnight from Wednesday to Thursday," said Alexander Kolesov, the city's chief meteorologist.
City residents may not even notice it since the concentration is very low with no large particles, he added.
St. Petersburg's Pulkovo international airport authorities said it was running normally.
Airspace over Germany remained closed for one hour on Wednesday between 5.00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) and 06.00 a.m.
Grimsvotn, in Iceland's most active Vatnajokull glacier, started to erupt in the late hours on Saturday. The ash plume has reached a height of 20,000 meters.
British meteorologists said earlier on Wednesday that the volcano may have become dormant once again. As of 02:00 GMT, there has been no volcanic ash plume registered over the volcano's crater, they said, quoting Icelandic meteorological services. However, bad weather could also be the reason why the ash plume has not been seen on radar screens, they said.
Icelandic volcanologists earlier predicted that the eruption would not cause a major air traffic collapse in Europe similar to the one that occurred during the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in southern Iceland last spring.
ST. PETERSBURG, May 25 (RIA Novosti)
