A plume of volcanic ash snaked its way through southern France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany on Sunday, shutting down airports and disrupting flights across Europe. Trans-Atlantic connections were also being diverted around a larger patch of cloud stretching from southern Greenland to the coast of Portugal, adding several hours to flights between Europe and North America and causing congestion as airlines tried to squeeze their planes through remaining routes. Weather forecasts said the ash cloud hovering over the continent will gradually dissipate as it spreads to southern parts of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria by Sunday night. With volcanic eruptions weakening, the plume in the mid-Atlantic was also slowly clearing. “We're expecting rain to thin the cloud, leaving only a small band left by Monday morning,” said Daniel Gerstgrasser, meteorologist with Switzerland's national weather agency. No further ash drifts are expected to reach the continent in the coming 24 hours, he said. The ash, stretching from the surface up to 20,000 feet, forced the closure of airports throughout much of northern Italy until 2 P.M. (1200 GMT) Sunday. As the cloud moved northward, German authorities halted takeoffs and landings at Munich airport at 3 P.M. (1300GMT) but said high-level overflights remained possible. Air traffic control spokeswoman Kristina Kelek said Stuttgart airport would be closed until 4 P.M. (1400GMT), but it appeared that the volcanic ash was heading eastward and likely would be largely out of German airspace by midnight (2200GMT).
