Mt. Fitzherbert

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift eastward.

Potential ash hazards to aviation: Under current eruptive conditions, small, short-lived explosions may produce ash clouds that exceed 30,000 feet in altitude. Ash from such events can travel 100 miles or more downwind.

Recent observations: Storm clouds continue to obscure the volcano. The spate of larger earthquakes in the magnitude 2.5 to 3.2 range during the past few days appears to be waning. Those looking at PNSN webicorders will see an impressive signal beginning just before 8:30 a.m. PST from this morning's magnitude 8.5 earthquake in Indonesia on most stations in the PNSN region, but not on stations near Mount St. Helens. That is because the sensitivity of seismic instruments near St. Helens has been turned down so that they will stay on scale and record well the entire size range of events that are occurring at the volcano during the ongoing eruption.