The volcano that erupted near Tonga (and I won’t pretend I can spell let alone pronounce its name) sent a shock wave racing around the world.
It was detected at weather stations across Australia as a sudden spike followed by sharp drop about half an hour afterwards, as in this screenshot from Rockhampton.
I used Google Maps to plot the course of the shock wave from the volcano across the widest part of Australia.
Showing just Australia:
I used BOM’s Weather Graphs of weather stations close to that line and found the times of the spikes and dips as the wave passed over.
It took roughly 3 hours and 24 minutes to cross the country. That’s 3,953km at about 1,160 kph.
Here’s a quick plot of the speed of the shock wave as it crossed Australia.
It’s not often you get to see such a phenomenon.
kenskingdom 