Thursday, January 29, 2009

Mt Redoubt update

So I have had a fairly productive day today, and a quiet evening enjoying a couple of my favorite shows on television. I decided to stay up and catch the late news for a change, but was really drowsing a bit. I heard something about Mt Redoubt and came awake long enough to learn that something or other had gone on, or was going on, tonight.

Naturally, like any connected individual, I got on the computer right away. First, I checked the NWS, for the Kenai radar. At first, I wasn't sure that the volcano would show on it, but of course it does-Mt Redoubt is darned near due east of the city of Kenai :) I couldn't find anything that seemed to correspond with the volcano....snow showers, yes.

The next stop was back to the Alaska Volcano Observatory website to see what had been going on while I sat entranced in front of the idiot box (as my father called TVs). The summary just said there had been increased activity between about 5:30 and 8, and that it had subsided. Naturally I checked the one webicorder that typically shows the most action-that is the one labeled "RSO" for anyone who trots off to look.

Now, it's nearly 11. When I scroll down to look at the most recent input, it sure doesn't look like it has subsided to me!

(The link to the Alaska Volcano Observatory is in the post below-just click to visit)



4 comments:

suvalley said...

The mountain did some more rumbling this morning, which put the activity on the national news websites.

This generated a tremendous amount of net traffic, which has caused the server to have issues. For a few hours, they had a skeleton page up, and now the main Mt Redoubt page is back up.

The most recent information says that activity has increased markedly over the past half hour, but they don't call it an eruption based on satellite images. And, their live feed from the webicorders is down, it seems. Instead, they are uploading snap shots from the individual reporting stations-these are running ten to 12 minutes behind real time.

I bet that place is crazy busy, and I appreciate all their efforts to report on this event as it happens.

Unknown said...

If I go by how Redoubt acted last time (not to say a volcano is predictable), it mumbled a grumbled for about a week then did a big cough-up of ash. Give it a couple more days. Who knows maybe a couple others will chime in, they all seem a little grumpy right now.

Glad to see snow coverage before the ash, current snowfall over the last 2 days is 6" and still falling in my area.
btw-the roads are slick.

suvalley said...

Roads are slick? Haha, heehee, master of understatement!!

Greased ice is more like it, crept home at 30, 35 mph...and we won't even mention the parking lots around town-positively skeery!

Have about six inches here too, we aren't plowing until it quits.

I've been watching the AVO website all day, and it's quieted down considerably since early afternoon. I am pretty well stocked here for the house and have another 1400 pound of hay sitting in the back of the truck (in the garage) Tomorrow I will top stock tanks and get that unloaded, just in case.

suvalley said...

Here is a good link to the hazards for agriculture from volcanes-


http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/agric/index.php#livestock