Temperatures in the area were unseasonably high last week, reaching into the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. Then temperatures dropped below freezing Sunday and into Monday morning. "There's a lot of water flowing underground in this area," McCarthy said. The freeze-thaw "caused some instability and that made it slide."
For a March evening in the Interior Alaska village of Nikolai, Tuesday was warm.
The significant explosive eruption started around 10 a.m. Monday, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported.
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