Today, 40 years ago, Mt St Helens exploded in Washington state. This picture was taken by Richard Lasher. He decided he'd take a look at the mountain once again before it blew, so he drove up to see the mountain. While driving, the mountain exploded. He jumped out of the car and snapped this photo.

klfreeman1 on May 18th, 2020 at 06:15 UTC »

The mountain blowing up is my earliest memory. I had just turned three and lived in SW Washington.

I remember my dad holding me up to the fan-like window on the front door and telling me to look out; that it was an important day. He told me to remember it, and I did!

ArnoldoSea on May 18th, 2020 at 06:42 UTC »

My mom lived in Eastern Washington at the time. It got hit really bad with the ash cloud. She told me it got so dark the street lights came on and they had to use snow plows to clear the ash from the streets. She also said some woman was screaming on the street, thinking that she was left behind after the rapture.

teapot_in_orbit on May 18th, 2020 at 08:16 UTC »

Had Lasher made it to Spirit Lake, he'd almost certainly have died. According to John P. Walsh's description of the eruption, Spirit Lake "met the full impact of the volcano’s lateral blast. The sheer force of the blast lifted the lake out of its bed and propelled it about 85 stories into the air to splash onto adjacent mountain slopes."

The story behind that photo of the Pinto in front of the Mt. St. Helens eruption