New snowfall on Rainier, Oct 2012: webcam photos!

Snoqualmie Pass is getting dusted this morning as well!

Could this be why forecasting will never be an exact science?  The better we get at it, the more we skew the results?

This is a great thread!

"Jeeeeesssssssuss...this is simple physics people. :"

Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/199…

"In a study reported in the February 26 issue of Nature (Vol. 391, pp. 871-874), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now conducted a highly controlled experiment demonstrating how a beam of electrons is affected by the act of being observed. The experiment revealed that the greater the amount of "watching," the greater the observer's influence on what actually takes place.

Webcam @ Muir is melting out as I type. I'll try to snap a few stills but for now this will have to do:

Glad to see that the weather rock atop the green box is still there. A handwavy calculation suggests that, if it doesn't roll first, a ~250 mph wind could blow it off the box. <-- proof that anything is more interesting than finishing a thesis.

Glad to see that the weather rock atop the green box is still there. A handwavy calculation suggests that, if it doesn't roll first, a ~250 mph wind could blow it off the box. <-- proof that anything is more interesting than finishing a thesis.

Now if only we could get one of these installed next to the weather rock for us desk jockey webcam refreshers:

Webcam @ Muir is melting out as I type. I'll try to snap a few stills but for now this will have to do:

Actually, it's not melting out today at all -- more like drying out from a flood!

I took a look at the new webcam installation when I skinned up to Muir yesterday. Given the warm day with temps in the mid 30s at 3pm and strong sunshine, ice was melting everywhere up there, and the camera dome was almost ice free. I easily removed the small amount of ice covering about half the camera dome by hand (just gently pulling it off, no impact -- NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OBJECTS TO HIT OR PRY ICE OFF THE CAMERA, it will just damage it again as happened last year).

But I discovered some bad news: the clear dome had filled with water which had partially frozen inside it. The lower portion of the camera housing was quite loose, and it appeared that wind-driven rainwater had infiltrated the seam between the upper and lower plastic housing parts. These photos show the new webcam installation, and a closeup of water and ice inside the dome.





So the camera housing was externally ice-free as of 3pm yesterday, but the camera itself was literally underwater!. The images for the last 1-2 days have been taken through the water filling the dome.

I emailed Stefan about the problem last night, and he was planning to go to Muir today anyway, so he decided to fix things. Removed the dome, drained the water, let the camera dry for a bit, then replaced the dome. Despite the camera not being rated for underwater use at all, the very low electrical conductivity of pure rainwater probably saved it from shorting out. Amazingly, the camera and its electronics appear to have survived complete immersion for 1-2 days. A bit of fogging remains on the lens, but that may slowly evaporate over time.

Here is the best image captured today after the water was emptied out around 11am, and before the weather rapidly worsened after 1pm:




As noted in the other October 17 Muir TR, the skiing was unexpectedly really good on the Muir Snowfield, even though coverage (of new snow) was minimal. Smooth new windpacked powder in some parts, which skied great, and the areas that were exposed older dirty snow had pretty much corned up by mid-afternoon, so they skied fine too. The heavy rains must have smoothed those parts out, too. Skiable from Muir down to Pebble Creek, not any lower, even though there was an inch of new snow down to the parking lot in the morning, and drifts of 2-12" along the trail to Pebble Creek.