On May 18, 1980 Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Southern Washington near Interstate 5

I was thinking about what someone said about how the weather changed for a few years after Krakatoa blew in Java. My experience in 1980 was interesting too. 

In March of 1980 my ex-wife and I married because we had children from previous marriages because we thought that would help our children (which to some degree it did from 1980 to 1994. She had a son and a daughter and I had a son. In 1980 they would have been 8 her son, 6 her daughter, and 5 my son from my previous marriage and then in 1989 we had a daughter together who is now 32 years old and married.

But, what was interesting about Mt. St. Helens was that it dropped temperatures for several years in Mt. Shasta where we lived and it also created strange and amazing sunsets that were green, purple and red and very unusual in every way. Winters were colder and summers rained more and were colder as well. Snow fell much deeper those years too. Instead of snowing 4 feet at a time during those years it fell well over 7 feet deep at a time too. We also built an A-Frame on the land we bought and the A-Frame shape allowed the 7 feet of snow at a time not to collapse our roof. In 1992 for example, 12 feet of snow fell in Mt. Shasta but luckily we didn't live their that winter but many roofs collapsed in the area because the snow was higher than the roofs on one story houses so there was nowhere to shovel the snow. So, some people put lawnmower sized snow blowers up on their roofs to solve this problem but this often caused other problems like roofs leaking too. But, the snow blowers often could blow the snow above the 12 feet level and prevent roofs from caving in too. So, for me, if it was between causing my roof to collapse or just creating a few leaks I think leaks would be better. However, rigging a lift for your snowblower to put it on the roof might be a lot for some people to do too.

But, the point of this article is how much the Mt. St. Helens eruption influenced not only the weather but weather patterns and the color of sunsets for several years as far south as Mt. Shasta which is also in the Cascade Mountain Range like Mt. St. Helens.