Volcanic Sunset with Crepuscular Rays, Mutare, Zimbabwe.

Clear skies with good visibility in the evening on 11th December allowed a strong volcanic sunset with twilight arch and crepuscular rays to appear behind Hospital Hill and Chikanga Township to the WSW of Mutare between 6.28 and 6.45 pm. This was due to the continued presence of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere almost four years after the massive eruption of the Hunga-Tonga volcano in the South Pacific in mid-January 2022. The frequency and intensity of the volcanic sunsets have diminished during the past few months and displays as strong as this one are now rare. This is reminder of the magnitude of that eruption which produced a plume of ejecta which reached an altitude of 58 km and entered both stratosphere and mesosphere in sufficient quantities that patchy remnants can still produce colorful sunsets in the Southern Hemisphere four years later.

Tripod-mounted Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 in sunset mode.

Compilation of montage of one full and 9 reduced volcanic sunset images.