It’s sunset over the south west Pacific and 26 hours since the massive eruption in Tonga, nations thousands of kilometres to the west now have a volcanic ash cloud over them.

In particular Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia / Nouvelle Caledonia are affected. The initial big eruption started off circular around the epicentre, but was soon caught up in an easterly flow that pushed it westwards towards Fiji. Today locally in Tonga westerlies have kicked in (the opposite to yesterday) and so any further eruptions today have been drifting eastwards out to open waters of the South Pacific.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says this main ash cloud is drifting quite quickly westwards at high altitude and may drift over Queensland overnight or Monday. Like a puff of smoke the further it travels the more it dissipates.

For now, New Zealand has limited risk for ash in our skies, although ex-tropical Cyclone Cody may drag some with it east of the North Island.

26 hours since the explosive #eruption in #Tonga, the skies turn rusty colour thousands of kilometres to the west over #Vanuatu & #NouvelleCaledonie.

Another remarkable satellite image from #Himawari. https://t.co/Pm2OWgcGPf pic.twitter.com/ponxqG23gA

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 16, 2022

#AshClouds from yesterday's giant #eruption in #Tonga is tonight turning rust coloured as the sun sets. 🟠🟠🌋

It's fanning out westwards over the Coral Sea area and currently lies over #Fiji, #Vanuatu, #NouvelleCaledonie and over the #CoralSea towards #Queensland. pic.twitter.com/mDeG7dmQJ0

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 16, 2022

When a #volcano has a huge #eruption, like we saw in #Tonga, the ash can reach extremely high altitudes. Air currents at this level behave differently to the ones at surface level (where we live). For now, NZ can expect most of the ash to pull away from Tonga and out to open sea. pic.twitter.com/sjhCq2IRO6

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 16, 2022

WeatherWatch.co.nz