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Keep an eye on the mountain from Friday night onwards. MKWC is predicting quite a lot of snow starting this weekend and another round of precipitation starting Tuesday/Wednesday.
I'm working on re-commissioning a mid-infrared instrument that hasn't been used at UKIRT for 11 years and things have been going so well until I saw this forecast...
Current forecast:
http://mkwc.ifa.hawaii.edu/forecast/mko/
Archived forecast:
http://mkwc.ifa.hawaii.edu/forecast/mko/...26.pm.html&yr_selected=2015&mo_selected=02
If the forecast pans out, I suspect the Mauna Kea access road above the VIS will be closed from Friday evening through most of next week.
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Thank You TomK - You are the BEST.
Good Job.
Proud to know you.
Mr.Mimosa
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So TomK, when the rough weather hits do you sequester yourself on the premises for a few weeks, or do you run?
***Still can't figure out how to spell 'car' correctly***
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We run. You don't want to end up trapped on the summit. We do carry emergency supplies up there, just in case, but all observatory staff are trained to leave before conditions become treacherous.
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Saw lightening while leaving the Palace this evening & thought of you, Tom!
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I'm in Hilo tonight and haven't seen any lightning so far. In fact, the web cams show some observatories are actually open this evening, although I doubt they are seeing very much, there's a thick layer of cloud above MK. The NWS radar images are interesting, they show two wet air masses moving towards each other with the collision point over the Big Island, hence the forecast for a lot of snow. Difficult to judge, but the snow might start falling sometime this morning.
Which direction did you see the lightning? Towards MK?
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From O'okala to Hakalau off shore,lots of electricity light show about hour half ago.
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Thanks, Mimosa. Just looked at the radar again, and yes, there was a cell just off the coast around Hakalau. There's some heavy stuff moving in from the east but it's still a long way offshore, so probably quite a few hours before it hits us. I'm a little surprised there's no flood watch from the NWS at the moment, but think Puna will get hit with a lot of rain in the next 24 hours. Not an expert though, maybe that line of storms will diminish as they get closer to the island.
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One of our son in laws is an air traffic controller at ITO tower,night shift,and has cousins on his side of family with the NWS ,so what you see with your info,may be what they see even far better.
Lots of professionals very awake this evening Tom.
Well we have not seen any weather reports of late, no t.v or computer in this house. Did think we saw lightning a few times just after dark though. What has been moving around is the big bugs. first we killed two large roaches in the house, the ones that have wings and fly. Also killed the largest centipede we had seen in sometime crawling from our babies room. We keep a tidy house and rarely see these common creatures inside, yet tonight they are running wild. We may be in for some strange weather for the next couple of days, these bugs probably feel it first? Hoping its only the weather that has them moving and not something like a large earthquake,that we are so over due for.
