Etna Live: Is Mount Etna Erupting Today?
Current status: Catania airport is OPEN and operating. Flights resumed at10:30 this morning after a second, much shorter stoppage, and INGV lowered the aviation colour code from red back to orange. The three-day closure of 26-28 September is over. Heavy ash from the North-East crater, an unfavourable wind and a storm closed airspace sectors C1 and B3 on the 26th, and the ash has not let up enough since. The colour code is red.
The last sixteen hours, because they are the whole lesson. The airport reopened on Monday at about 20:00 — four hours earlier than the 23:59 that had been announced. It then shut again at 09:30 on Tuesday, when the North-East crater produced another 4 km ash column, with the stop announced until 15:00. It reopened at 10:30 instead. Two announced times, both beaten, both in the traveller's favour — after four extensions that went the other way. It ran: arrivals only until 16:00 on the 14th, then arrivals and departures until 22:00, then 10:00 on the 15th, then 14:30 — and then it ended ahead of that last stated time. Every announced end time moved, in both directions. Worth remembering if you are reading this during the next one: the published end time is an estimate, not a commitment.
Seven announced times have now moved this month, and that is the single most useful thing to know about this airport. Not one of them was wrong out of carelessness: SAC says openly that the reopening depends on how the ash emission and the high-altitude winds develop, so nobody is holding a schedule — they are watching the wind. The practical reading is not "the times are unreliable", it is never write off a day because of a published end time, and never bank on one either. Check the morning itself, every time. Two things decide it and neither is the volcano alone: how much ash is being produced, and which way the wind is blowing it. A red code with a working airport is normal here; what closed Catania this time was the wind pointing the plume at the runway.
Where to look first, if it happens again. SAC's own notice board is the fastest source by hours: it went a month without a passenger notice, then published three times on 14 September and three more on the 15th. Check that, then your airline. The colour code describes the volcano and the airspace; whether your flight moves is decided by the airport and the carrier. For scale: in early August the airport was shut for nine days and roughly a third of some 1,900 scheduled flights were cancelled or diverted.
This is the official live stream of Mount Etna, run directly by INGV(Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) — Italy's national volcano-monitoring institute. Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe, and the crater area shown here is often genuinely in motion: smoke, ash, or lava fountains, depending on current activity.
What travelers need to know
🌋 Current activity
Ash from the North-East crater, heavy enough to close an airport. The phase that began at 05:00 on 24 September intensified on the 26th, with an eruption plume around 4 km above sea level and a wind direction that carried it straight over Catania. A storm the same night made the day worse. If your car is parked anywhere under that plume, rinse it, do not wipe it — the ash is abrasive and wiping grinds it into the paint. For the live picture rather than any written summary, use the status card above and the webcam.
✈️ Catania airport
Open, since 10:30 on Tuesday 29 September. The closure that began on the 26th ran about three days and ended on Monday evening; a second stoppage on Tuesday morning lasted an hour. If your flight was cancelled during those days, the rules still apply: under EU261 volcanic ash is an "extraordinary circumstance", so you are owed a refund or rerouting plus meals and a hotel if you were stuck overnight, but not the fixed cash compensation. Diverted traffic went to Palermo, Trapani and Comiso — if it happens again and you are offered a choice, take Comiso, about ninety minutes from Catania against roughly three hours from the other two.
If it does happen while you are booked. Diverted traffic goes to Comiso, Palermo and Trapani. For scale, the nine-day closure in early August hit about 36% of roughly 1,900 scheduled flights and well over 100,000 travellers. Under EU rules volcanic ash counts as an "extraordinary circumstance": you are owed a refund or rerouting plus meals, hotel and transport if you are stuck overnight, but not the fixed cash compensation. Check your flight with the airline before going to the airport rather than turning up and hoping.
What a diversion actually looks like. A reader flying in on 15 September 2026 was sent from Rome to Comiso instead of Catania, and the airline then bussed the passengers to Catania — with their checked bag, which arrived with them. They described it as smooth, and the coach as comfortable and air-conditioned. Two things are worth taking from that. The luggage does normally follow you, which is the part most people fear. And where you are diverted to matters a great deal: Comiso is about ninety minutes from Catania, while Palermo is closer to three hours from Catania and four from Taormina. If you are ever offered a choice, take the eastern option.
⛰️ Access to Etna
No closure of the mountain or the towns around it. The rule is altitude: free below about 2,500m, guide required from 2,500m, mandatory above 2,750m — and it gets pulled back further near the active vents whenever activity picks up, which is decided on the day by the guides and the local ordinance, not by this page. Worth knowing before you book anything: the standard coach tours stop at Rifugio Sapienza and the Silvestri craters, around 1,900m, a long way below any of this.
🚡 Cable car & excursions
Funivia dell'Etna and jeep-tour operators suspend service during ash emission or high wind. If a tour is confirmed as running, that's a real, current signal — not just marketing.
🚌 Getting around
No impact on trains, buses, or roads around Etna's base. Catania, Taormina, and Giardini Naxos are operating normally.
🚕 Watch for taxi price gouging
If you're diverted to Palermo and need to reach Catania (or vice versa), a legitimate taxi/NCC transfer runs roughly €450-500 — some private operators have been charging stranded travelers up to €800 for the same trip. The reinforced trains (free if you show a flight ticket originally booked to Catania) and buses are the safer bet on both price and reliability; a licensed taxi should always confirm the fare before you get in.
✅ Before you leave
Check your flight directly with the airline or airport, confirm any booked Etna tour is still running, and don't attempt a summit hike without a guide regardless of what this page says — conditions shift within hours.
🛏️ Flight cancelled or delayed?
Find a place to stay near Catania tonight
With hundreds of flights cancelled this week, a lot of travelers are ending up with an unplanned night near the airport. Same-day availability moves fast — worth checking sooner rather than later if your flight just got pushed to tomorrow.
Search hotels near Catania airport →Affiliate link — booking through it costs you nothing extra and helps support this site.
What you're looking at
Whether you'll see smoke, ash, or even lava fountains depends on the weather and current activity — Etna is unpredictable, and that's part of what makes it Etna. The view is usually most striking in the evening or at night, when glowing lava or plumes of smoke stand out against the dark sky. What you're seeing is almost always confined to the summit craters — the mountain is enormous (Etna covers roughly 1,190 km², about the size of Greater London), and the towns around its base sit many kilometers from anything happening at the top.
Can I visit Etna?
Can I visit Etna today?
Yes — the lower slopes, the cable car base station, and the towns around the mountain are open and unaffected by the current activity. The restriction is on going near the summit, not on visiting Etna at all.
Can I reach the summit?
Not on your own above 2,750m — a guide is mandatory there at all times, and between 2,500m and 2,750m as well. Below 2,500m you can walk the marked trails freely. All of it is further restricted while the current vents are active, so check with a licensed guide operator before planning a summit day.
Do I need a guide?
Yes, above 2,750m, always — and between 2,500m and 2,750m too. This is the standing local rule, not something specific to the current eruption. Below 2,500m you can walk freely on the marked trails.
Is the cable car operating?
Check directly with Funivia dell'Etna before you go — operators suspend service during ash emission or high wind independent of the official alert level, so "running today" can change within hours.
Are there restrictions?
Yes — a restricted "red zone" around the summit craters and upper Valle del Bove, plus altitude-based guide requirements that tighten as activity rises. These are set by municipal ordinance; see Official sources below for the current boundary.
How active is Etna, really?
If you're seeing this page because you just found out Etna is erupting, the most useful context is this: it almost always is, in some form. Etna is the most active stratovolcano in the world, with documented eruptions stretching back roughly 2,700 years — one of the longest continuous records of volcanism anywhere on Earth — and it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 specifically for that exceptional, ongoing activity, not despite it. Between 1500 BCE and 1669 CE alone, historical records count 71 separate eruptions, and activity has continued at a similar pace ever since. A summit that's smoking, rumbling, or throwing the occasional lava fountain isn't a sign something has gone wrong — for Etna, that's closer to its resting state than an exception to it. What actually varies, and what's worth tracking, is the intensity: routine summit activity versus the kind of sustained ash-heavy phase that grounds flights.
Live weather on the summit
Conditions at 3,000m are frequently nothing like the weather down on the coast — wind speed especially can be the difference between a cable car running normally and one suspended for the day. This is a live wind and weather map centered on the summit craters, not a forecast we write ourselves:
Understanding the alert levels you'll see in the news
Two different color-coded systems get reported, and they measure different things:
VONA (Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation) is what actually determines flight disruptions at Catania airport. It has four levels: Green (normal, non-eruptive), Yellow (unrest above background level), Orange (heightened unrest, an eruption may be underway with no or minor ash), and Red (a significant ash-emitting eruption is imminent or in progress). This is the number worth checking if you have a flight to or from Catania.
INGV's own volcanic alert level is a separate, broader civil-protection scale used for the mountain itself, covering everything from routine monitoring to evacuation-level concern. The two scales usually move together but aren't identical, which is why you'll sometimes see what looks like conflicting information — check the specific bulletin, not just a headline color.
Reading the volcanic tremor graph
Alongside the webcam, INGV publishes a near-continuous chart of Etna's volcanic tremor — a background seismic signal, distinct from a discrete earthquake, produced by magma and gas moving inside the volcano's conduits. It's measured in nanometers per second on a logarithmic scale: roughly 10-100 nm/s reads as quiet, 100-1,000 nm/s as moderate, and above 1,000 nm/s typically lines up with active eruptive phases. A sharp, sustained rise is usually the earliest signal of an escalation, often visible on the tremor chart before it's obvious on the webcam. See the live tremor chart directly on INGV's site — we're linking rather than embedding it here since it's their live monitoring instrument, not ours to reproduce.
Official sources
- 📡 INGV Osservatorio Etneo — volcanic bulletins and current alert level
- 📈 INGV live volcanic tremor chart
- ✈️ Catania Airport — official Etna notices (the source that actually decides restrictions; news reports lag it by hours)
- ✈️ Catania Airport — arrivals board
- ✈️ Catania Airport — departures board
- ⛰️ Parco dell'Etna — access ordinances (current altitude and guide requirements)
🎟️ Guided tour
Mount Etna Sunset Tour with Aperitif, from Catania
A guided 4x4 tour up to the craters with a licensed guide, timed for sunset — the safest and simplest way to actually get close to the summit rather than guessing at current access rules yourself.
Check availability & prices →Affiliate link — booking through it earns me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Etna Live: Frequently Asked Questions
What is INGV?
INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) is Italy's national institute for geophysics and volcanology — the official body that monitors Mount Etna around the clock and issues its volcanic alert levels.
Is Mount Etna erupting right now?
Activity changes constantly — see the status card above for the latest phase we know of, then check the live stream itself and INGV's own bulletins for the current status, since anything written here ages within hours.
Is it safe to visit Etna during an eruption?
The lower slopes and surrounding towns are generally unaffected by typical Strombolian or fountaining activity. The genuine restriction is altitude, set by local ordinance rather than the eruption itself: you can walk freely below about 2,500m, an alpine or volcanological guide is required between 2,500m and 2,750m, and above 2,750m a guide is mandatory with no exceptions — and access gets pulled back further whenever activity increases. Go only with a licensed Etna guide and check current access rules before you plan a summit visit.
How often does this Etna webcam update?
It's a continuous real-time video stream, not a static image refreshed every few minutes — the only interruptions are occasional drops from high wind, cloud cover, or maintenance on INGV's side.
Where can I find official Etna eruption updates?
Directly from INGV Osservatorio Etneo (ct.ingv.it), which publishes the volcanic bulletins and alert levels this page and every other source ultimately draw from.
What's the difference between Strombolian activity, a lava fountain, and an ash emission?
Strombolian activity is the mildest and most common: short, rhythmic bursts of lava a few times a minute, usually contained to the summit craters. A lava fountain is a sustained, much taller jet of lava, often the escalation point that makes international news. Ash emission is exactly what it sounds like — fine volcanic particles thrown into the air, which is what actually disrupts flights, not the lava itself.
Does an Etna eruption affect Taormina, Catania, or the rest of a Sicily trip?
Almost never, beyond the airport and the mountain itself. Etna's typical activity is contained to the summit area, and the towns around its base — Catania, Taormina, Giardini Naxos — carry on normally even during an active phase. The two real exceptions are ashfall grounding flights at Catania airport, and, rarely, ash settling on nearby towns during the most intense explosive phases.
What should I check before a summit or cable car visit right now?
Three things: the current INGV bulletin for the alert level and any access restrictions, the live weather further down this page (wind and visibility change fast at altitude even when the forecast down at sea level looks fine), and whether the cable car and 4x4 tours are running — they suspend operations during ash emission or high wind independent of the volcanic alert level.
How often does Etna actually erupt?
Very often — it's the most active stratovolcano in the world, with documented eruptions going back roughly 2,700 years. Some form of summit activity (smoke, minor Strombolian bursts) is close to Etna's normal state rather than a rare event; what varies is the intensity, from routine background activity to the sustained, ash-heavy phases that make international news and ground flights.
What is Etna's volcanic tremor, and why does it matter?
It's a continuous background seismic signal caused by magma and gas moving inside the volcano, distinct from a discrete earthquake. INGV tracks it in nanometers per second on a logarithmic scale — roughly 10-100 nm/s is quiet, 100-1,000 nm/s is moderate, and above 1,000 nm/s typically lines up with active eruptive phases. A sharp rise is often the earliest sign of an escalation, sometimes visible on the tremor chart before anything shows up on camera.