you didnt hear it explode?
You said — “you didnt hear it explode?”
The original eruption was on May 18, 1980. That was a Sunday and no, I didn’t hear it explode that day, but I saw it from Portland, later in the morning. What a huge blow-out it was... LOL..
The actual “blast” was focused to the north and Portland, OR is to the south. In addition, the sound ended up “bouncing” between the upper atmosphere and the ground and thus there were areas where the explosion was hear and then spots where it was silent (from the sound waves bouncing back and forth).
But, this particular time (of that Star Wars movie) was a subsequent and following explosion, with the winds going to the south, and thus, carrying the ash over Portland, OR. It was later than the original May 18, 1980 explosion.
That original explosion never carried one bit of ash over Portland, which was only about 30 miles away, anyway. It all went east and turned day into absolute night — in Eastern Washington, along with *huge* ash piles over that that.
Another interesting thing was the initial *blow* of the mountain shoved a huge initial blast of ash over to *one area* of the United States, while the other “main plume” of ash flowed with the jet stream, generally to the east.
That *one spot* where that initial blast hit (with ash) was Tulsa, OK — something of a very interesting phenomenon... It was just “one little spot” that was hit, while the *main plume* of the ash went further north and then east...
Anyway, some interesting things...
Lives in Oregon. St Helens ash fell in measurable amounts as far as KANSAS.