When two disasters saved Earth from a worse one

Hydrogen chloride from Mount Pinatubo could have caused serious damage to the ozone layer. We were saved by a typhoon

In June 1991 the Philippine volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top in spectacular fashion, producing one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in the 20th Century. It is well known that this eruption, which killed around 800 people and left 10,000 homeless, ejected so much dust into the atmosphere that it had a major effect on climate, depressing global temperatures by around 0.5C for a couple of years. But what is less commonly known is that if Typhoon Yunya hadn't coincided with the eruption, the impact could have been significantly worse.

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