[Geysers] Thermal Basin-Induced Weather?

[Bruce Jensen]

Convective weather cells - including thunderstorms - can often be very compact storms, with precipitation of any kind - rain, hail, graupel, snow - being confined to very narrow swaths.  One place can see heavy accumulation, and another location a mere few hundred yards away or less may see nothing at all.

OTOH, large geyser clouds certainly create pockets of precip - something like Excelsior Geyser on a cold still  morning may be able to produce significant rain or freezing rain.  A geyser cloud on a still day is, in effect, a small localized convective cell.
 
Bruce Jensen,
California, USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"[Yellowstone] is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the one place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time." ~ Thomas Wolfe


________________________________
 From: Meg Justus <megj at nwlink.com>
To: Geyser Observation Reports <geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 10:41 AM
Subject: [Geysers] Thermal Basin-Induced Weather?
 

 
I don't know if the steam does affect it in 
Yellowstone, but here in western Washington state, highly localized graupel 
happens every once in a while, esp. in the springtime.  From what I 
understand about the phenomenon here at least, it's got more to do with varied 
topography than anything else.
 
Meg Justus
 
Around 6pm, while driving past Midway Geyser Basin, I  was astonished to see significant accumulation of hail/graupel along the  roadway.  The slopes around the Midway parking area still had an inch+ of  the stuff on the ground.  The area of hail deposit was so small and  highly concentrated at Midway (perhaps only within 100 yards North or South of  the parking area) that I wondered if significant amounts of steam (natural or  man-made) have been known to affect the type of precipitation that falls on an  area.  Or was it just happenstance that the hail only fell there?   Any thoughts?
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