Forecast , National rally

[John A]

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/
Forecast for the national rally

[rodekyll]

The wind blows to the east.  We'll be fine.   

[Chuck in Indiana]

I figure Yellowstone will blow while we're there. <shrug>

[Arizona Wayne]

For the record, I was riding my 650 Yamaha twin right towards Mt.  St. Helens in 1980 when it blew north of us.  I lived in Vancouver, Wash. then.  When it does blow the ash from it goes the direction of the wind.  The 1st time the ash covered most of Montana.  My brother in law in Billings thought we might be dead.  It  was partly cloudy where we were.  We got out shots of ash repeatedly after the 1st 1 and having a doughboy pool, or any pool for that matter, it was not good.    So I've BTDT and know what it's all about.      As long as your bike has air filters it will be OK.   The ash is like valve grinding compound.

[rodekyll]

I lost Rollonda, my Ambassador to Mt. St. Helens.  The short story is that we were camping up there when it blew and three bikes with 4 people left in a hurry.  We lost one bike before we got out of the logging roads due to 0 visibility and debris in the roadbed.  We collected that rider and made for Olympia, where I was working at the time.  We shut down the bikes at the shop -- my ambo and a KZ650 -- and they never ran again.  The ash had completely fouled the engines, wheel bearings, cables -- it was everywhere that fine grit could get.  Nothing was salvageable.  All the air cleaners in the world wouldn't have stopped the damage.  I saved the sandblasted headlight for several years, but it's gone now. 

I was driving tow truck in Olympia when that happened.  We were hauling dead vehicles to central dump sites just to clear the freeway.  Sometimes we'd open the hoods and they'd fold up from the weight of the ash.  We were covering air cleaners and other intake areas on the trucks with oiled foam and pantyhose trying to keep the ash out, but we lost half of the county's tow truck fleet to ash damage.

[Arizona Wayne]

I lost Rollonda, my Ambassador to Mt. St. Helens.  The short story is that we were camping up there when it blew and three bikes with 4 people left in a hurry.  We lost one bike before we got out of the logging roads due to 0 visibility and debris in the roadbed.  We collected that rider and made for Olympia, where I was working at the time.  We shut down the bikes at the shop -- my ambo and a KZ650 -- and they never ran again.  The ash had completely fouled the engines, wheel bearings, cables -- it was everywhere that fine grit could get.  Nothing was salvageable.  All the air cleaners in the world wouldn't have stopped the damage.  I saved the sandblasted headlight for several years, but it's gone now. 

I was driving tow truck in Olympia when that happened.  We were hauling dead vehicles to central dump sites just to clear the freeway.  Sometimes we'd open the hoods and they'd fold up from the weight of the ash.  We were covering air cleaners and other intake areas on the trucks with oiled foam and pantyhose trying to keep the ash out, but we lost half of the county's tow truck fleet to ash damage.

Were you guys camping on the side that was off limits where some died because they ignored the warning?   After the fact we were told any vehicle that had an air filter would survive because the ash would plug up the air to the motor and the motor would stop.  Only vehicles w/o air filters would succumb to the ash.  Yes the ash was heavy.  I was surprised our rain gutters(full) withstood the weight of the ash on our roof.

[rodekyll]

No, by our maps we were just outside the red zone, on the NW edge, IIRC. 

Apparently thousands of folks assumed their air cleaners would stop the ash.  The problem was that a lot of smaller particles got through some, and others simply plugged as you say.  Either way they were dead beside the road until we could drag them off.  And a lot of folks thought the air intake of an engine was the only risky place for ash.  Immersing a running vehicle in ash or water is really no different as far as the machine's future.

[Arizona Wayne]

No, by our maps we were just outside the red zone, on the NW edge, IIRC. 

Apparently thousands of folks assumed their air cleaners would stop the ash.  The problem was that a lot of smaller particles got through some, and others simply plugged as you say.  Either way they were dead beside the road until we could drag them off.  And a lot of folks thought the air intake of an engine was the only risky place for ash.  Immersing a running vehicle in ash or water is really no different as far as the machine's future.

I worked for Sears service then and we had a lot of Clark county maintenance agreement customers w/rider mowners and up there you had to cut your grass every week. Sears decided to honor their customers and so with that ash on the grass the mower would go thru a set of blades after 1 cutting !    the ash was that abrasive.   Sears absorbed the loss.

The dairy farmers were afraid their cattle were going to grind their teeth down to nubs with the ash on the grass blades.  1 time I was going to a farmers house for a call and I saw ash coming down in the rain drops on my van windshield.  The farmer told me when that happens, the cattle stop eating and come to the barn.  The cattle were smarter than the farmer thought. 

[Demar]

  The farmer told me when that happens, the cattle stop eating and come to the barn.  The cattle were smarter than the farmer thought. 

That stuff probably tasted like ash.

[rodekyll]

It drifted like snow through SW and eastern WA for some years afterward.  Folks buying machinery had to beware of "ash cars" like we were wary of 'flood bikes' after Money Creek.

But the farmers I know swear that as soon as it got down into the dirt their crops liked it real well.

[Arizona Wayne]

It drifted like snow through SW and eastern WA for some years afterward.  Folks buying machinery had to beware of "ash cars" like we were wary of 'flood bikes' after Money Creek.

But the farmers I know swear that as soon as it got down into the dirt their crops liked it real well.

The ash was not always of the same ingredients each time it blew out into the atmosphere, so what you got varied.   The 1st shot seemed to be mostly metallic.