Thar She Blows!!!

Well, it is not nearly the explosion we saw in the 80's, but Mount Saint Helens has finally erupted. Well, sort of. A plume of ash and smoke was sent billowing into the sky yesterday over Washington, and scientists are not exactly sure why.

A plume billowing thousands of feet into air slowly drifted to the northeast Tuesday as Mount St. Helens released a towering column of steam and ash. The explosion happened around 5:25 p.m., about an hour after a 2.0 magnitude quake rumbled on the east side of the mountain, said Bill Steele, coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network at the University of Washington. The National Weather Service issued an ashfall advisory after pilots reported spotting ash higher than 30,000 feet, National Weather Service meterologist Danny Mercer said. Hours after the burst, the Weather Service received reports of light ash falling across the Yakima Valley, roughly 75 miles east of the mountain. Late Tuesday, the ash cloud continued to slowly drift east, across Yakima and Kittitas County.

Currently, experts do not believe this is the precursor to a larger explosion. But they are also careful to remind people that they don't really ever know what an ornery volcano will do when cornered.