It does appear that we got a substantial amount of snow last night. Webcam images show quite a bit of snow. No tracks either, no one has attempted the summit yet, the snowplows have not made it up.
I am not scheduled to go up today, or even again this week. Fresh snow can be pretty, shoveling snow? Not so much. Actually, I expect that the summit crew will be sitting at Hale Pohaku much of the morning, waiting for the plows to complete their job, not the most productive way to spend the day.
The snow is expected to last through today and into tomorrow. The White Mountain should be white for a while.
Fresh snow atop Mauna Kea, the first good storm of 2013
It was a gorgeous day when we arrived on the summit. A deep blue sky above brilliant white snow covering the slopes. It was difficult to put much faith in a forecast calling for truly dire weather. I could see nothing to the southwest, the direction this weather was approaching from, just the blue Pacific stretching to the horizon.
A little fresh snow on the summit of Mauna KeaOh yeah… The car is still there. It is a truly sad sight to see, the car halfway down the slope. Rumor had it that a tow truck was to come up today to remove the vehicle, but the car was still on the slope when we left.
Not a bad day, I accomplished everything on my to-do list for the day. Some work in AO to check for any stray light, removing some old servers to make way for a new system, locating and labeling some optical fibers that are already in place for this same system. Everything went well, except the lunch time cribbage game, I lost badly.
The weather was degrading all day, first the clouds loomed overhead, then they descended as a heavy fog while the temperature dropped. It did indeed begin to look like the forecasts might have a bit of truth. The prediction is for heavy snow, as much as 6-10 inches. Not sure if that will materialize, it would be nice, we have not had any real snowfall this winter. I will just have to check the webcams tomorrow morning.
It was not in the forecast. But It came anyway. The night crew abandoned the summit around 3am in the face of ice and snow.
Summit webcams show an increasingly white mountain this morning. Given the numbers in the met data, it is not going to stop anytime soon. Temperatures of well below freezing, -6°C (20°F) and 100% humidity tell the tale of continuing snow.
No sign that our holiday crew has made it to the summit as of yet. I expect them to make an attempt, even if they stay just an hour or two to perform those few tasks that must be done each day. Not much problem for me, a snowy weekend makes for a quiet weekend on-call.
The mountain claimed another vehicle this afternoon.
A rented Nissan Altima parked at the Hoku Kea telescope rolled off the ridge, a steep cinder slope about 400ft high. Fortunately neither passenger was hurt, the woman in the passenger seat exited the vehicle when it began rolling, her companion was already out. Witnesses describe the vehicle rolling several times as it descended the slope.
Now the Mauna Kea Rangers have the unenviable task of removing the vehicle and cleaning up the mess. The rangers report indicates that the vehicle does not appear to be leaking any fluids. Hopefully the vehicle can be removed without further damage to the summit. OMKM’s Natural Resources Manager and an entomologist are being consulted before removal.
Just another reminder to take our mountain seriously…
Wreck of a Nissan Altima that rolled off the summit ridge of Mauna Kea, photo by Shane Fox, used with permissionLocation of a vehicle that rolled off the summit ridge of Mauna Kea, photo by Shane Fox, used with permission
Trying to finish up a new video project for Keck Week. As one would guess, the video features the history of Keck. Looking for material has been a great excuse to dig through the Keck archives. Through the expertise of our staff librarian, Peggi Kamisato, I have pursued hundreds of photos and other material from the history of these great telescopes. Turning page after page of photos albums from the construction of the two telescopes, thumbing through observing log #1 to read the notes from those first nights of science observations. I have a new appreciation for the history of this place.
Not all of this material can make it into the video. Some of the best can, hopefully resulting in a worthwhile result. Just a teaser for today, one of the photos from construction that did not make the cut. What about the video? Come to Keck Week and see the premiere!
Construction of the Keck 1 Telescope circa 1987, photo by Tom Wynne
Today Mercury reaches maximum elongation, the furthest point it will reach from the Sun in the sky and the highest it will be above the sunset for this evening apparition. The planet is easily visible as a bright, starlike object about 18° above the setting Sun as twilight begins. Over the next couple weeks Mercury will slide back into the sunset, heading for inferior conjunction on March 4th.
A good sized meteor has airburst over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. There are reports of injuries and damage, but how much is unclear right now. Give it a day and we will probably have a good idea of the scale of this event, and probably fragments of the meteor itself.
A lot of vehicles in Russia carry dashcams, and videos of the event are rapidly showing up on YouTube. It is quite spectacular, the bright fireball saturating the closer cameras.
I have seen meteoric airbursts, but nothing on this scale. It is impressive, and a bit scary to be reminded that this can happen. This even almost certainly has nothing to do with the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14 tomorrow, but I am sure some people will make a connection. The conspiracy theorists will probably go further, perhaps much further, it should make amusing reading.
Update: A link to a collection of videos and photos of the damage here. Midway down is a vid from a warehouse security camera of a loading bay door blown inwards by the blast wave.
A dashcam video of a meteor airburst over ChelyabinskWarehouse loading bay door blown inwards by meteor blast wave
