The volcano effect in Postcrossing
If you follow the news, you probably have heard about the Icelandic volcano that recently caused a major disruption on Europe's air traffic. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano (don't worry, we don't know how to properly pronounce that either) caused huge delays on passengers hoping to fly on the days after its eruption on April 14th.
But why is this relevant here? Because not only passengers got grounded - cargo flights too, and this obviously included mail delivery services; any mail arriving or leaving the affected parts of Europe got delayed. But how much did this really affect the postal services? We couldn't find any hard data on it, so we decided to measure it ourselves and share it with you.
Below you can see a graph of number of Postcrossing postcards received per week of 2010.
Postcards received per week (2010)
It's easy to spot when the Eyjafjallajökull did its thing, isn't it? We estimate a 26% hiccup on mail delivery because of the volcano. Quite amazing how powerful nature can be.
However, the good news is: mail delivery is back again to its normal speed, judging by last week's numbers. It's quite possible that postcards traveling to more far away places might still be affected by this, but the worse part seems to be over, so keep posting! :)
39 comments so far
And WOWW - I never quite realised that us Postcrossers sent & recieved so many postcards in a week. The other thing is, that's just 'officials.' There are so many RR's and other swaps too. We are keeping the postal workers of the world very happy!!!!
Now I'll receive more postcard in the mailbox the same day and will be enough compensation for some days with almost no mail.
It's very amazing how the nature can surprise us when we think that nothing cannot surprise us. :)
great statistic Paulo!!
Still slow here in Durban, South Africa--I am suffering from severe withdrawal:-(
http://9teen87spostcards.blogspot.com/search/label/Iceland
Eyja=Islands
fjalla=mountains
jökull=glacier.
And it is still active - but now it is not fuming so much ash that trobles the flights.
Mail has found its way via other ways than air -> by sea, by train, by truck and even on foot.. (;
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2257
I now use it as an expression of frustration whenever something is delayed :)
Funny thing is I keep recieving postcards and everyday there is 1 or 2 postcards waiting for me in my mailbox, even if I now have more recieved than sent cards!!!
I love the stats too. I would be interested to know if there is going to be one week with a big increase in registered cards now that the post is moving again.
Aaaah, I really hope they are checked as received soon, I want to send some more postcards.
Hugs from Malaysia! :-)