BB FANS

If this had happened north of Watford, it wouldnt have got the same lenghty coverage.

More South East bias.

Actually....the cloud dispersed South west....

well up in the north knew nothing about it until switched tv on

mate of mine lives v close to this. I texted him to see if everything was okay, and it turns out he'd slept through the whole thing

Well despite predictions bout it going Se is very much settling in Thames Valley...as said above mainly due to temp inversion.Not good for us asthmatcs

The inversion is quite marked atm, it's the sort that messes up your TV pictures. Will be around for a bit too.

Interviews on tv always make me larf after things like this.

"I heard a big bang!" repeat as necessary for days afterwards

actually my neighbour was woken up by it. She said she heard a big bang

Yeah..its pretty profound...hence allthe dross settling in the valley...

Story of my life

Didn't wake me up, I was pretty much comatose.

More than normal!

12 December 2005
Mirror
By Paul Gallagher

LONG traffic jams built up throughout the area and there was panic-buying at petrol stations after the blast.

Sections of the M1 near the depot were closed, sparking delays on other routes. It is expected to continue today.

Flights at Heathrow were disrupted when the plume of smoke closed one of the airport's air routes.

Jams were reported on the M25, A1, A10 and A41 as drivers were diverted away from the Hemel Hempstead area.

Thousands of motorists ignored advice that petrol supplies would not be affected.

Long queues built up at petrol stations just hours after the explosion. There were reports of a punch-up at one filling station.

Fears of a price hike because of the blast added to fears.

But Ray Holloway, of the Petrol Retailers Association, said the oil industry had contingency plans, including using other depots to supply the area.

He added: "I understand the concern of motorists, but they should carry on as normal.

"It's not just people in the Hemel area who have been panic buying. Motorists as far away as Croydon in Surrey have been at it.

"This is a self-inflicted misery. There are numerous alternative oil depot sources."

The RAC warned of serious congestion on the roads if the M1 remain shut today.

A Highways Agency spokesman said: "We are working closely with the police and fire service to assess the situation and are taking their advice on the duration of the motorway closures.

"Drivers should continue to listen to news and travel bulletins and bear in mind that because of the severity of the incident, these motorway closures could go into Monday."

Flights at Luton, the nearest major airport to the blast, were able to carry on normally.

12 December 2005
Mirror
By Adrian Shaw

TODAY'S forecast of patchy light rain for southern England means the effects of the explosion are likely to be felt for days.

Weathermen had hoped heavy downpours would wash the polluted cloud away before it could do much damage, but forecaster Peter Kidds said: "This will be only be a drizzle."

He added: "The cloud is basically a massive concentration of pollution, of solid sooty particles like the dirty diesel engine of a bus multiplied many times over.

"Low level winds from the west will blow it across London and higher altitude winds from the north east will send it in the direction of Windsor, Heathrow and Reading.

"It will disperse with time and become diluted across a bigger area. It is unlikely to go further north, but it could go as far as Southampton and as far east as the Thames estuary."

Light winds yesterday meant instead of spreading across the ground, fumes from the Buncefield blast mushroomed up into the air.

Another Met office weatherman Steward Wortley said of "black rain" forecasts: "If people have had their cars washed, they will regret it."

I'm just back from Reading and the cloud is visible above the town.It spreads South and west as far as Goring on Thames

Press Association
Monday December 12, 2005 12:23 PM

The spectacular black pall of smoke resulting from the huge oil depot fire should start to disperse, weather experts have said.

The dark plume which rose from the inferno at the Buncefield site near Hemel Hempstead was earlier obscured by cloud from satellite pictures.

Paul Knightley, from the PA WeatherCentre, said it was probably "nowhere near as widespread" as Sunday and would have been dispersed by winds.

Winds coming from the north east were likely to push any smoke in a south westerly direction towards south Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and north Hampshire.

Mr Knightley said: "It will be more dispersed as the winds are stronger. We won't see the massive pall of smoke as we saw on Sunday. It will be a more narrow plume of smoke."

He added: "It will be less concentrated. It won't be quite as spectacular. I don't think we'll see it as extensively in one area, it's being dispersed more vigorously."

Fears of black rain were unlikely to materialise as there was no rain forecast in the region.

When some of the black particles from the smoke finally do come down it will not be "particularly noticeable" because they will have dispersed quite widely, he predicted.

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Some awesome pictures indeed.
Today, here in Hatfield, there is a touch of smoke in the air, but mostly, its fine, sunny...if somewhat chilly.

Looks like the blaze should be out by midweek, after that....there is one hell of a clear up to be done.

Calrissian: Blue Skies