Fuego Volcano Goes BOOM!

Volcán de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) near Antigua, Guatemala, is erupting!
I'm never there when it's blowing its top. When my sister and I were in Antigua just last weekend, it was smoking a bit, but now it's really going off.

Whoa, that's a lot of ash.

0:35 is a golf course that is famous for being so close to the volcano.
1:10 no sound but you can see how fast the smoke and ash rises up.
1:40, you can hear the sound of it erupting!
2:08 you can see all the ashes that fall on the city of Antigua.

That golf course above after the ash settled this afternoon. Surreal.

The perils of living close to an active volcano -- ash on your car, in your house, on your head!

The Guatemala City airport is closed due to ash. It can bring down planes when it gets sucked into their engines. And they'll have to sweep the runways clear as well. 

CONRED is the emergency organization in Guate that monitors this stuff. Their Facebook page is full of good tips and such. Loads of pictures and videos popping up all over Facebook. 

Cars caught in the lahar. (mud flow from the volcano)

EDIT: Death count is now at 25. Many caught in lahars and pyroclastic flow. 😪 ("A dense, destructive mass of very hot ash, lava fragments, and gases ejected explosively from a volcano and typically flowing downslope at great speed.")

UPDATE: The above video is Fuego but not the eruption from June 3rd. Sorry! I'm leaving the video up though since it's very cool. 

Don't worry, dear readers. I'm miles from Antigua, and the three volcanoes at Lake Atitlan have been dormant for years. If one ever does erupt, it's most likely to be Atitlan Volcano and it's the furthest from me, way across the Lake. That would be exciting for me, so far away and out of danger, but horrible for those living near the volcano. I hope the vulcanologists can work on predicting eruptions more accurately. This one took people by surprise, I think.

Click here to read a good article on why Fuego's eruption was so deadly this time.