Petra, I think it is a coincidence that a cyclone/typhoon hits after a volcanic eruption. Actually, the Phillipines get so many typhoons each year that getting one during the height of Pinatubo was not that huge a coincidence. On the other hand, Lowell thinks that Hurricanes trigger EQs and volcanic eruptions, although he was stretching this really far for Olga and Kick-em-Jenny. Volcanic eruptions and forest fires can trigger rain/thunderstorms-lots of condensation nuclei. There was a thunderstorm I witnessed above a forest fire in the backcountry north of Santa Barbara during the dry season: clear enough that they were related. So, one might argue that a tropical depression might get started near a volcano, given the right conditions. But, if one comes sweeping in from the 1000s of km away, that is a coincidence....Chris