<html> <head> <style></style></head> <body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'> Greetings again Gazers, This summer it was harder to get a grip on Whirligig (obviously one of my faves!) since I was not able to get to Norris with great regularity until late August, and most of the usual suspects who also monitor it and contribute data were enjoying multiple Morning eruptions (or not).  I suspected that the spikes on the YVO Constant monitor were Whirligig eruptions, but that took several visits in September to confirm.  Thanks to the great Norris staff for not only noting seen eruption times, but times it was seen drained or refilling in their VC logbook. I have added all the logbook notations to GT. I was lucky to see one from the bench and 1 from the path during September.  As September came to a close the YVO graph indicated it was slowing down to about one eruption every 3 days.   As with Vixen, after the gates opened after the shutdown, I found Whirligig’s activity had changed. After the YVO radio signal was repaired, it shows that Whirligig was/is erupting 5-6 times daily.   The YVO graph shows this frequent activity started around October 4 or 5 during the shutdown.  (I suspect the same date for the change at Vixen.)  Fortunately the logger was still gathering data even though it was not transmitting.  The more frequent activity in October was great news and I have been able to catch one per visit, or two on a great day!  With shorter daylight hours, that has been great!  Time to overflow from an eruption is about 90 minutes, so if I arrived to a refilling pool I was able to wait for overflow, then go to Vixen or elsewhere and return later. I had one closed interval of 3h 44m. Now the plot thickens with observed minors!  I have seen these over the past few summers and found that they might be followed by a quick refill and an eruption about an hour later.  Unfortunately this changed my ability to gauge when the previous eruption occurred, and I won’t enter any presumed eruption times based on first overflow, (marked as ?),  in GT.  I will stand by those times prior to the disturbance/change in activity; I heard of no minors prior to October.  Yesterday there were two minors prior to the afternoon eruption. I hope this information helps those who also enjoy this fun geyser and are coming for closing weekend. I’ll say goodbye to all of southern Yellowstone and all geyser basins this weekend, but will be around Norris mornings and late afternoons on my way to and fro. After the time change to Standard time, darkness will fall early on our last day as we say goodbye to the interior until April. See you on the boardwalk, MA M.A. Bellingham mabdepot@msn.com  </div></body> </html>