Jetstar and Qantas have cancelled flights scheduled to repatriate holidaymakers who have been stranded by the erupting Mount Agung following predictions that the wind changes will smother the flight path with ash.
The airlines had been hoping to get as many passengers off the island before the wind changed or a full scale eruption strikes.
Worried passengers stranded in Bali are in the dark about what other airlines are planning to do in the coming hours and have been told to check travel websites for information.
With tremors yesterday getting closer together and more intense fears of a full scale eruption are growing.
Experts predict a major eruption could happen at any time.
Geologist Devy Kamil Syahbana said: “We cannot predict whether it will be bigger than 1963, but according to our evaluation the potential for a full-scale eruption is still high.”
The 1963 pyroclastic eruption killed at least 1,100 people on the island.
Bali governor I Made Mangku Pastika has extended a state of emergency on the island until at least December 10 as it braces for what could be a huge eruption of the volcano.
Resident Ni Nengah Sari, 38, said: “We will be staying with our family in Mataram as things are becoming worse here.
“Ash from the eruption has blanketed our village.”
But how much the climate changes depends on what is being erupted – with a volcanic explosion causing the ideal conditions to trigger a drastic change in the earth’s temperature.
NASA climate scientist Chris Colose said: “To have a notable climate impact, there needs to be an explosive enough eruption (to get material in the stratosphere) and a sulphur-rich eruption (the SO2 converts to sulphate aerosol, which is what radiatively matters).
“If these conditions are met, the eruption cools the surface/troposphere and warms the stratosphere, the opposite of both patterns associated with CO2 increases. But both are very short-lived.”