How a Tongan volcano flooded Australia
By Doug Mitchell Published in the Australian Citizens Party's Australian Alert Service , 8 February 2023 In conversations with hundreds of Australians in the last few years, a phrase commonly heard when describing weather events is the conspiratorial “it’s geoengineering”. Such claims have never been accompanied with any scientific evidence to prove them. Neither “geoengineering” nor climate change were the cause of the record rainfall seen on the Australian continent in 2022. A major contributor to this rainfall was a volcanic eruption, possibly the largest in recorded human history, whose lasting impact ought to be given much greater attention by meteorologists. Thanks to Australian Alert Service subscriber Andrew Davies for bringing this to my attention. The large eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano in Tonga on 15 January 2022 sent ash and water vapour 57km into the atmosphere. Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai are two of 171 islands (only 45 of which are inh...