ice – A Darker View

To the End of The Road

There is only so much road to explore and we explored most of it.

Yakutat, like so many Alaskan communities is accessed only by sea or by air. Not to say there are no roads, they just do not go anywhere else, much less connect to the road network that crosses the continent.

In the case of Yakutat the furthest you can get from town is about 26 miles as the crow flies taking the road to Dangerous River and Harlequin Lake. This road is a well maintianed gravel road heavily used to access popular fly fishing rivers and hunting areas, as well as by loggers harvesting the local hemlock and sitka spruce.

A Little Icy…

MastCam Ice — Hanging ice blocks the view of MastCam after a severe winter storm on January 4th, 2015

Summit Ice — The results of a night of freezing fog atop Mauna Kea

Ice on the Mast — Ice on the Keck weather mast

Park Away From Dome — An ice covered sign warning drivers to park away from the telescope dome

Ice — Freezing fog and 90mph winds combine to create ice sculpture on Mauna Kea

Icy — Freezing fog and 90mph winds combine to create ice sculpture on Mauna Kea

Keck 2 Ice — A ladder platform of the Keck 2 dome with a heavy coating of ice

Icy Weather — The meteorological instruments atop the Keck weather mast covered with thick ice.

Heavy Ice — Ice on the Keck 2 dome ladders after the New Year’s storm of 2015

A snow covered summit road — Getting to the summit over a snow and ice covered road in heavy fog

Snow — A touch of snow and ice atop Mauna Kea this morning

A Blade of Ice — The effects of freezing fog on the summit of Mauna Kea

Snow Gallery

This winter has already seen quite a bit of snow atop our tropical summit. It seems appropriate to put together a few recent snow photos…

OLI Hawaii — Recent snowfall atop Hawaiian summits as captured by NASA’s OLI imager aboard Landsat 8 on Dec 25th, 2016

Snow at Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea — A summit covered with snow to greet us on a recent morning up top.

Mauna Kea Blizzard — A snowstorm continues for a second day atop Mauna Kea, December 2, 2016

Fresh Snow — Fresh snow atop Mauna Kea blankets the ground behind Keck

Snow Drifts in Hawaii — Substantial snow drifts in front of the Keck Telescope, December 19, 2016

A shot from a UKIRT webcam of the Hoku Kea student observatory

Yeah, this is going to be a problem… Eric gives scale to a rather large snowdrift in front of Keck Observatory

No View — The Keck 1 breakroom windows feature the view of the inside of a snowdrift

The MKSS snowplow crews remove snow from in front of Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea

The MKSS snowplow crews remove snow from in front of IRTF Observatory atop Mauna Kea

Deep drifts in front of Keck Observatory cut through by the MKSS snowplow crews

The summit road choked with deep snows — It will be a fair bit of work to clear the road to the summit

The MKSS snowplow crews remove snow from the roads atop Mauna Kea

Loading Snow — Loading pickup trucks with snow for export from the mauna.

Subaru Observatory looms out of the fog and snow

Snow along the road as we approach the summit of Mauna Kea

Mountain Traffic — Winding our way down the mountain with snow day traffic

Icy Morning

Keck Under Ice

One of my favorite photos of the year, taken in the first few days of the year.

Winter is Here

Today marks the beginning of winter. While snow and ice can appear on the summit of Mauna Kea any time during the year, the most severe weather usually occurs during winter storms. We all look forward to the beautiful sight of Mauna Kea with her white coat. Of course this comes at a price, days of difficult access to the summit facilities, or no access at all. The loss of observing nights due to ice and clouds is most common from January to March.

A Bit of Ice

Looks like freezing fog and snow left a bit of ice on the summit last night…

Icicles hand from the sunshade of MastCam across the field of view

White Mountian

A great deal of mythology swirls about our mountain. Some of it may be true, much is probably not as wishful thinking and reality collide on the summit. The current debates have moved every little detail into the light.

Mauna Kea White — Mauna Kea with a fresh covering of snow and ice

One of the claims I have heard repeated a few times recently is that in the past Mauna Kea always had snow, even in summer, making the name “White Mountain” very applicable.

I had my doubts about this. Whenever these questions arise it is important to check the records. Fortunately this has already been completed for us… Norbert Schorghofer, Elianna Kantar, and M. Puakea Nogelmeier at the University of Hawaii combed through the historical records looking for observations of the presence of snow atop Mauna Kea. What they found is that there were any number of records indicating the lack of snow on the mountain.

Follow the link and read the paper, it is a fascinating view into the past of Mauna Kea. Included are excerpts from ships logs and diaries of early visitors to the islands. At the end is a convenient timeline of the accounts covering the first century of written records and a set of three conclusions drawn from this information. The author’s conclusion is clear, Mauna Kea has not featured permanent snow cover any time in the last few centuries.

There was a time when the mountain featured permanent snow and ice fields. During the last ice age, around 12,000-11,000 years ago, there was permanent ice and active glaciers in the summit region. Along the access road there are textbook glacial features to be seen, glacial polish and moraines. This was gone before humans arrived in the islands. What we see today was probably much as it was over the past few centuries, as borne out in the records of the first European voyagers to make it to the islands. Snow may have been more common, but there were certainly periods when no snow was to be seen atop the summit of Mauna Kea.

These historical accounts date from long before human activities had begun dumping vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We do face an uncertain climate future, warming temperatures may reduce snowfall. The opposite may also be possible, warmer sea surface temperatures may create more precipitation at the summit with heavier snowfall events possible.

The Aftermath of the Storm

The storm appears to be waning now, the satellite shows that much of it has passed the island. Not long ago the snowplow crews let it be known that they would not reach the summit today, try again tomorrow as the storm abates.

I did a bit of a photo survey of the summit using MastCam to check on the summit conditions. Poliʻahu rules Mauna Kea!

Mauna Kea Summit Storm — Looking at the summit ridge from the Keck after the storm

IRTF Under Ice — The IRTF coated with heavy ice

UH88 Under Ice — UH88 under a heavy coating of ice after the storm

UKIRT Under Ice — UKIRT under a heavy coating of ice after the storm

Snow Drift — A MastCam image of the snowdrifts covering the road between Keck and IRTF

CFHT Under Ice — CFHT coated with heavy ice

Gemini Under Ice — The Gemini North telescope coated with heavy ice

The Blizzard Continues

The storm continues unabated atop Mauna Kea. Word from the snowplow crews is bad, deep drifts cover the road above the switchbacks. They are stating that it is unlikely our summit crew will be able to access the telescopes today. That will make the second day in a row with no access.

MastCam is still functioning, only half the dome is covered with ice. I have turned the heater on in an attempt to clear what I can. The view it reveals is deeper snow and a lot more ice. The railings on the dome ladders have coatings many inches thick.