Mount St. Helens webcam

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I have no clue how long this cloud formation will last. It's unbelievable..........

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocam...va-highdef.php

[Lorena]

I'd love to have a camera and take a picture of that... I love clouds

[Cringer]

Pretty cool.

I am more grateful for the link then the view though. My daughter will love this as she has been on a huge science kick the last few days. She is 8 and yesterday when I said she had done enough school work for the day and could do whatever she wanted, she continued to read up on different science related stuff all night. She will love this, as volcanoes and the different types was something she was learning yesterday.

[MJ4H]

Looks cold there.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Pretty cool.

I am more grateful for the link then the view though. My daughter will love this as she has been on a huge science kick the last few days. She is 8 and yesterday when I said she had done enough school work for the day and could do whatever she wanted, she continued to read up on different science related stuff all night. She will love this, as volcanoes and the different types was something she was learning yesterday.

I actually check it for the science aspect and just happened to see the clouds today. A couple of hints on scientific viewing......

1. It's not quite as apparent during the winter, but during the summer, you can see the magma plug in the middle of the crater slowly growing. They also provide updates on the website concerning any growth of the magma plug. The various links are on the right side of the webpage.

2. On clear nights, check the webcam. If the magma is active around the plug, you can actually see a small spot glowing on the mountain. It's the actual "hot spot" where lava is slowly building up the plug. Viewing the webcam on full moon nights is also spectacular.

3. The mountain is currently growing at a rate that it will likely build up to its pre-eruption height in 25-30 years. Pretty stunning to think about that kind of growth when you see how far it has to go at this point.

It's a lot of fun and a great teaching tool for kids.

[Cringer]

Good info/tips. Thanks.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Hadn't noticed this before......they have an archive page that shows the photos from the last hour. Really cool to see the progression of the clouds over the mountain........

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocam...ghdef-live.php

[dawgfan]

Lenticular clouds. You see them all the time out here over Mt. Rainier - in fact today there's been a pretty spectacular build-up of regular clouds and lenticular clouds over the mountain this morning.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Lenticular clouds. You see them all the time out here over Mt. Rainier - in fact today there's been a pretty spectacular build-up of regular clouds and lenticular clouds over the mountain this morning.

I'm assuming that happens when a cloud bank runs into the mountain side and goes up over the top of it, correct?

[Yellow5]

Rainier looked great this morning.

If you like the photos of St. Helens, you should really get to Washington and actually go through the entire St. Helens area if you get a chance.

Living here has given me the opportunity to visit the site many times and wander around down in the pumice plains and hike the trails around spirit lake and the mountain.

Amazing to see the damage up close, even more amazing to see the area return to life.

[oliegirl]

I've always had a fascination with volcanos, they are so beautiful and powerful.

We had family near Mt. St. Helens when it erupted in 80, they sent my mom a small jar of the volcanic dust that had settled over everything - I still remember how it smelled and how fine it was, I expected it to be rough and more like sand or dirt, but it was even finer than baby powder and would almost disintegrate when you rubbed it between your fingers.

Someday I want to see Mt. St. Helens, and also Pompeii...

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I'm assuming that happens when a cloud bank runs into the mountain side and goes up over the top of it, correct?

Yes, but it can also happen when there aren't any other clouds in the area.

http://www.crystalinks.com/lenticular.html

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

I've always had a fascination with volcanos, they are so beautiful and powerful.

We had family near Mt. St. Helens when it erupted in 80, they sent my mom a small jar of the volcanic dust that had settled over everything - I still remember how it smelled and how fine it was, I expected it to be rough and more like sand or dirt, but it was even finer than baby powder and would almost disintegrate when you rubbed it between your fingers.

Someday I want to see Mt. St. Helens, and also Pompeii...

I was 3 and living in Spokane when St. Helens erupted. I should have pictures my parents took somewhere, of several inches of ash on the ground and people walking around with masks on.

[path12]

I still remember the pictures from Yakima that day. High noon and black as midnight. One of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Funny thing is we got hardly any ash here in Seattle, very light dusting but that was it.

[dawgfan]

I was on my first Boy Scouts campout at Buck Creek, which is close to Mt. Rainier. I didn't hear the boom but others said they did. Within a few hours, ash started falling where we were and the scout officials (it was a local camporee) hurried things up and had us get on our way. There was a small coating of ash on our cars when we left, but we were pretty much out of range of any real danger (though we didn't really know any details at the time). Very surreal watching the news coverage that day.

Seattle was spared any ash due to the direction of the jet stream - since St. Helens is almost due south of Seattle by around 100 miles or so, the ash cloud was pushed east and missed the Puget Sound area. Central and Eastern Washington got dumped on though. My grandparents and an Aunt, Uncle and cousins lived in Yakima and had to endure the repercussions of the ashfall. I remember getting a 5-gallon bucket full of ash from my grandpa after the fact.

It will be fascinating to see if the mountain does indeed rebuild itself within my lifetime, and to see what shape it ends up looking like. Prior to the eruption, it was about as perfect and symmetrical a volcanic cone as you'd find, similar to Mt. Fuji in Japan.