An eruption on the other side of the world might end up having an effect on climate here i the southeast, as Environment and Climate Change Canada is keeping a close eye on recent events. Following an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the Klyuchevskoy volcano in Russia erupted, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.
Meteorologist Crawford Luke says they're keeping a close eye on how the weather may be affected.
"It's still a bit of a developing situation. So I haven't really seen any hard evidence or facts about how much we think has been emitted from the volcano and stuff like that. I would imagine we will in the coming weeks."
While the exact outcome is still being determined, Luke says that when meteorologists look at the effects volcanoes have, they tend to look at possible cooling effects.
"With volcanoes, generally speaking, the more they emit when they erupt, the more of an impact they can have on the global weather. Typically, what we've seen with volcanoes in the past is that a lot of sulphur actually gets emitted, like sulphur dioxide. So that actually tends to have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.
"Some of the huge volcanic eruptions in the past throughout history have resulted in cooler temperatures than you would otherwise expect. In some cases, it's lasted for months and years. I think it's a little too early to say if that's what we could experience here."
Additionally, CO2 added to the atmosphere would have a warming effect, though Luke states that it would be longer-term for the climate.
"As far as the CO2 emitted, that would obviously contribute as a greenhouse gas. Longer term, it would contribute to the overall warming trend that we see with the planet. But in the shorter term, like on a time scale of a few months to a few years, it could actually have a cooling effect because of the sulphur that gets emitted as well."
Luke says they'll keep monitoring the situation to see if an update is required.