When checking the weather the other night I was startled by a hazard event issued by the BOM. Quite apart from the storms which are common enough in summer, there was a tsunami warning.

, 

Thunderstorms I am quite used to, tsunamis, not so much. For the reader's benefit, I should note that I live in the mountains west of Sydney at about 650 metres. Of course I realised that this was a coastal alert, never mind the "for this location" banner at the top. 

I also knew that this warning was a result of an underwater volcano off Tonga, that exploded with a force, we are told, of a thousand Hiroshimas. Little wonder that many countries in the Pacific have issued similar cautions.

Tonga is cut off at the moment and needs our material support, which I trust that Canberra will be organising as I write.