Finally Some Rain and a Tongan Volcano

Finally, we received a bit of rain late Wednesday afternoon and evening with 0.73" collecting in the rain bucket. I've been a bit bored lately with the weather so it was nice to get some decent rainfall. Next week will hopefully be a bit more exciting. There will be a rather large storm coming into the Plains by Tuesday and Wednesday of next week with heavy snow likely on the Front Range of the Rockies and severe weather across northern Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Here in the Midwest, we will likely see some storms too.

An underwater volcano has erupted close to the Tonga coast, in the South Pacific ocean.
Scientists sailed to inspect the the volcano, which has been shooting smoke, steam and ash into the air near the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai.
Tonga authorities said coastal villages close to the active volcano were not yet at risk, and that no warnings had been issued.
From the NWS in Honolulu, Hawaii...

THIS IS THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WITH A BULLETIN FROM THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER.

A DISTANT EARTHQUAKE OCCURRED AT 818 AM HST WITH A MOMENT MAGNITUDE OF 7.7...AND WAS LOCATED NEAR 23.0 SOUTH 174.8 WEST OR IN THE TONGA ISLANDS REGION. BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.
HOWEVER...SOME COASTAL AREAS IN HAWAII COULD EXPERIENCE SMALL NON-DESTRUCTIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL CURRENTS LASTING UP TO SEVERAL HOURS. THE ESTIMATED TIME SUCH EFFECTS MIGHT BEGIN IS 236 PM HST THU 19 MAR 2009.
PERSONS WISHING TO ENTER THE OCEAN ARE URGED TO EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION DUE TO POSSIBLY STRONG CURRENTS. BOATERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF UNUSUAL CURRENTS AND POSSIBLE HARBOR SURGES THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.