Those tiny earthquakes at Mt. Rainier were apparently precursory to the larger event
which occurred yesterday afternoon. The smaller events can be viewed on the
seismograph recording:
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/RCM_EHZ_UW.2001062912.html
and
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/RCM_EHZ_UW.2001062812.html
The larger event at:

http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/RCM_EHZ_UW.2001063000.html

PNSN gives the parameters of this event as:
3.3 2001/06/29 18:23:31 46.855N 121.974W 7.5 17 km (10 mi) W of Mount Rainier

See:
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html

This is the largest earthquake within 30 km of Mt. Rainier since April 22, 2000
when a Ml 3.5 occurred. There have been 19 events of Ml>=3 in this region since
1969, about 1 every two years.

So now who says precursors can only be recognized after the fact.

• Pacific Nothwest Earthquake listing