[Geysers] Norris & Steamboat datastream...

[Gordon Bower]

Brian Davis wrote:

> noticed something else odd - not at Steamboat, but at nearly every other instrumented Norris spot, there was a sudden temperature drop on the evening of 9 Aug. Porkchop, Opalescent Spring, Constant, Echinus, all show this - but when I look at the Nuphar Lake air temperature, there is *not* a huge drop (but there *is* a drop... and there's a drop in the Vixen ground temperature, but later in time than for the geyser runoff channels). Even things like the Gray Lakes show this downward spike very clearly. So a question for those who might know... was there one *heck* of a sudden downburst out there that flooded everything with cold rainwater for a very brief time? 

I was camping just outside the park, and there were several thunderstorms the afternoon and evening of the 9th. It is possible.

>And if so, does it surprise anyone else that it shows up almost not at all at Steamboat (where the channel sensor presumably has been dry or sitting in a stagnant pool, and so I'd expect to see a strong response to
> a sudden downburst of cold rain)?

The afternoon of the 10th, Steamboat's runoff channel was indeed dry, with rain puddles lingering in some of the deeper holes. It wasn't having minors yet, and Cistern Spring was still out of sight, boiling and sloshing.

If the sensor is high and dry, it's only going to see a similar sized drop as the Nuphar Lake sensor as the air cools; if it's in a stagnant pool, the pool is already near air temperature, and perhaps already full of rainwater from an earlier shower. It doesn't have as far to drop as a sensor in a hot place does.

Without knowing exactly where the sensor is, all we can do is speculate.