Pinatubo Dust Glow over South Florida
Early in the morning twilight, the sky glows warm Miami pastels with predawn sunlight refracted through stratospheric ash from Mt. Pinatubo. Pinatubo, in the Philippines, lofted enormous volumes of dust and ash skyward -- a massive clastic spew dwarfing the output of the St. Helens eruption of 1980. Though the heavier ash and large dust particles mostly settled down across the Philippines and adjacent areas of the west-central Pacific, plumes of fine dust in the stratosphere circled the globe many times. The thickest and most spectacular were in tropical and subtropical latitudes; and one of those passed directly over South Florida on this morning.
Coral Gables FL (12 Nov 92), looking ESE