Canadians recall blast, fine ash from 1980 volcanic eruption at Mount St. Helens

Rafferty Baker · CBC News

· Posted: May 18, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Sandy Santori remembers the acheronian unreality that covered Trail, B.C., opening May 18, 1980. It filled the entity with a colourless gloom, arsenic good ash fell to the ground.

"It was conscionable nary sunshine. It was conscionable gloomy, grey, black. It was scary," helium said.

Santori was 26 years old, and archetypal learned of the concern erstwhile his parent called him retired of the house. There was a country connected the street. His neighbours, mostly Italian Canadians, were hurriedly covering their freshly planted gardens, unsure where the fine, dusty ash was coming from.

"Everybody astatine that clip thought determination was a malfunction astatine Teck Cominco and that they were emitting thing retired of the [smelter] stacks that we'd ne'er seen before," said Santori, who would aboriginal spell connected to beryllium politician of Trail, an MLA and B.C. furniture minister.

Before long, connection dispersed done the assemblage that the ash was coming from Mount St. Helens, a volcano that had erupted with tremendous unit that morning, much than 450 kilometres distant successful Washington state.

The May 18 eruption is considered the worst volcanic catastrophe successful U.S. history. It killed astir 60 radical and altered landscapes successful Washington state.

In Canada, the effects weren't arsenic lethal, but they were inactive felt crossed confederate B.C.

Blast question strikes Vancouver

It began connected B.C.'s South Coast, arsenic the blast question from the eruption bounced disconnected the precocious ambiance and returned to world successful Metro Vancouver and confederate Vancouver Island.

A CBC News communicative that aired a twelvemonth aft the eruption described the blast arsenic being "slightly smaller than the spot needed to sound retired each azygous window" successful Vancouver and Victoria.

Ian Thomson was a 27-year-old geologist astatine the time. He was astatine his parents' location successful West Vancouver erstwhile helium heard the blast. He had been intimately pursuing the Mount St. Helens story, arsenic the volcano had been progressively progressive successful the months starring up to the eruption. But the dependable inactive came arsenic a mystery.

"All of a abrupt I heard a immense bang," helium said. "Something indispensable person exploded."

Thomson thought possibly trains had collided successful a adjacent obstruction yard, oregon that his sister mightiness person driven a car into the broadside of the house.

Within 5 minutes, helium said, determination was a vigor quality bulletin explaining that the volcano had erupted.

"My 2nd thought was, 'Gee, I stake you this is not good,'" helium said, reasoning of the calamity that was unfolding successful Washington.

Falling ash

After the blast question came the ash. The good particles took hours, and adjacent days successful immoderate places, to marque its mode from the volcano to communities successful confederate B.C. wherever it blanketed the landscape.

Santori's assemblage of Trail was adjacent to the concentrated plume of volcanic ash and smoke, which mostly drifted northeast from Mount St. Helens implicit places similar Creston, Fernie and adjacent Lethbridge, Alta.

Further north, successful Kamloops, B.C., Paula Kelley, a past 22-year-old bookkeeper astatine the section newspaper, witnessed the ash arrive. It had been a sunny time with clouds, earlier it began to appear.

"I was downtown successful the city, truthful you could conscionable spot it falling everyplace and you would spot it connected each the cars. Everyone was having to cleanable their windshields and everything and it's just, similar — we were each thinking, 'like, this is truthful acold away,'" said Kelley. "It was truly odd."

She described it arsenic benignant of dystopian, though cipher appeared to beryllium wearing masks oregon thing to support themselves from the volcanic ash. Within a week, the city, which is much than 500 kilometres from the volcano, had gone backmost to normal, with small hint of the ash, Kelley said.

Researching the ash

Britta Jensen, a geologist and subordinate prof astatine the University of Alberta, is portion of a squad that has been researching the mode Mount St. Helens ash dispersed successful Canada. She said earlier her squad began its enactment successful 2019, small was known astir the taxable — dispersion maps stopped astatine the Canada-U.S. border.

"Most places successful B.C. — adjacent precocious [ash] accumulation rates — it astir apt wouldn't person really been overmuch much than a thickness of a recognition card, possibly two, truthful possibly 2 millimetres, 1 millimetre oregon so," said Jensen.

Santori remembers having to hose disconnected the car and driveway, washing the ash into tempest drains. He says it wasn't similar wildfire ash — but overmuch finer, similar a particulate that turned to mud erstwhile it got wet.

Jensen's squad surveyed astir 400 radical who remembered the ash, adjacent proceeding from radical arsenic acold distant arsenic Edmonton and Yellowknife with grounds of a good dusting.

"A batch of radical mentioned however it conscionable darkened things. Like everything was truthful overmuch darker and I tin ideate however apocalyptic it would consciousness if you were sitting determination and it was a beauteous sunny time and having this monolithic unreality travel successful and artifact the sun," she said.

Jensen, who has examined Mount St. Helens ash deposits crossed Western Canada, says the 1980 eruption was connected the smaller broadside compared to what took spot during the prior 4,000 years.

"Mount St. Helens has this unthinkable past of erupting and erupting a lot," she said. "She builds herself up and past she blows her top. We look astatine the grounds from her and I could spot different eruption happening successful our lifetime, but possibly it's going to beryllium 200 years from now, we don't know."