Overnight, the seismographs monitoring the Soufriere Hills volcano recorded signals associated with episodic ash venting, continued degassing, and rockfalls from the dome. There was a moderate increase in the intensity of seismic activity soon after 6pm on 18 November, lasting about three hours, which then declined slowly over the rest of the period.
Poor visibility has hampered direct observations of the volcano.
Between 16:00 yesterday and 16:00 today there were 16 long-period earthquakes and 7 hybrid earthquakes. One of the long period earthquakes preceded a rockfall. There were 78 rockfall signals, some of which were of moderate amplitude.
The level of ash in the atmosphere in St Peter's and in St John's, as averaged over the last 24 hours, remained low.
The dome is still growing and the growth area may switch rapidly at any time. Although the main activity is currently in the south-west sector of the volcano, further pyroclastic flows are likely in any of the ghauts around the volcano.