On 2022-01-15 04:14:45 UTC, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai Volcano erupted, with a truly epic amount of force.
From Wikipedia:
On 15 January, the volcano violently erupted again, about seven times more powerfully than the eruption on 20 December 2021. There were numerous reports of loud booms across Tonga and other countries, such as Fiji and as far away as New Zealand and Australia. A boom was heard in Alaska seven hours after eruption. The eruption set off a massive atmospheric shockwave travelling at about 300 m (1,000 ft) per second. Near the eruption, the explosion damaged property, including shattered windows.
It’s about 3400km from my city:
~3400km!
So 3400km, at 300m/second = 11,333 seconds or roughly 3.14 hours (3 hours, ~8 minutes).
The eruption happened at 04:14 UTC, so that would make the pressure wave hit at 07:20 UTC, or 17:20 local… Turns out, it was noticeable on the sensors in my house… 😲 There’s a noticeable bump at 17:16, then the wobbliness after that.
BMP280 sensors graphed in Splunk (Timezone: UTC+10
Matches up - from the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami Wikipedia entry:
The explosion was heard in Samoa, roughly 840 km (520 mi) away … Fiji, more than 700 km (430 mi) away, described the sounds of thunder, while the “thump” of the eruption was also reported in Niue and Vanuatu. … The eruption was heard more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi) away in New Zealand, where the sound arrived two hours later. A series of bangs were heard around 3:30 a.m. local time in and around Anchorage, Alaska, approximately 9,700 km (6,000 mi) away from the volcano, lasting about 30 minutes. Low-frequency noise persisted for approximately two hours.
It’s pretty amazing, the accidental insight/value/interesting data you can get from smarthome things sometimes…