Observations for 04 August 2014
The night was calm and clear,and not as cold as it could have been. But it was still steamy. We walked up on what appeared to be the start of Turban erupting, although for a moment had the sinking feeling that Vent was in there too. If it really was the start, then we saw a short, vigorous Turban. That the next Turban eruption was long and quieter, and Grand erupted after the second interval does support that. As said before, it was steam, so not much to see of the one burst eruption. That makes nine in a row for me.
Woke up to a surprise. It was cold and gray and damp, and had rained a bit. From that point, it got worse. The weather radar showed a slow moving region of rain, and we were at the leading edge. Rain was going to last for several hours.
Out at Grand, while the rain was steady, there was no wind, so once a person got properly situated, it was possible to stay dry without fighting for it. We went through a short Rift eruption at the end of West Triplet activity, then two cycles of Turban having long then short eruption durations. And then we got my tenth one burst eruption in a row.
Thanks to the rain, stayed indoors most of the day. Did come back out for the evening Grand. Beehive had also not been observed during the night, and so now the Indicator made its appearance. Things worked out much better than they could have. People had the chance to abandon Grand right at the start of a Turban eruption, head over and see Beehive, and then come back and catch Grand two Turban eruptions later. And the sun actually made an appearance for both eruptions. Or at least for the first half of Grand, which had another one burst eruption.
Having Grand erupt when it did also made me feel better. According to both the weather radar (internet access was working by then) and the sky itself, we were about to get dumped on. But the expected downpour never happened.
I went through the little data I have on two burst eruptions, and it appears that first bursts last between 8m30s and 9m40s. There aren’t any longer, and all the longer first bursts are the only bursts. This seems to fit, as in many of the one burst eruptions, there’s usually a slowdown, and an attempt to stop, during that period of time.