The Eruption in Numbers

The explosion released energy estimated at about 200 megatons of TNT — roughly 13,000 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. It threw ash and rock around 50 miles into the sky.

That ash spread into a thin veil around the whole planet. It blocked enough sunlight to cool average global temperatures by roughly 1.2C for more than a year. The fine particles also scattered light into vivid red and orange skies worldwide. Edvard Munch's burning sky in "The Scream" has been plausibly linked to those Krakatoa sunsets over Oslo. One volcano repainted the sky for everyone on Earth.