Extreme weather at KAIRA

Yesterday, we had some pretty extreme weather at KAIRA. Overnight there had been a lot of snow and, as the skies cleared in the morning, some extremely high winds picked up and lashed the site.We were out first thing to collect some data disks and getting onto the site, and then into the RF-container, was quite a challenge.

Sheltering by the RF-container, I managed to take this photograph. Standing there, you could see great clouds of snow being swept up the northwest slope and hurled over the HBA tiles. The image doesn't really capture the ferocity of the morning, but perhaps it gives a hint of the conditions we had.

Clouds of snow blasting over the KAIRA HBA array (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

As far as we can tell, the telescope has survived with no damage. However, a full inspection will not be carried out until later today. Yesterday, we also managed to travel on to Tromsø (to take the observer to the airport) and cross the mountain passes safely both there and back. Thankfully we had the heavy four-wheel drive and not one of the lighter observatory vehicles.