? for A. Dawg

[AugustWest]

Heard it snowed in Hawaii today.  How rare is this?

[AlohaDawg]

Depends on where. The mountaintop of Mauna Kea (White Mountain) where the telescopes often gets some snow. Outside of Mauna Kea, in fact, aside from the big island, I'd say extremely rare.  They usually don't see heavy snowstorms or great quantities of snow. They got 6" at once this week, though.

It's 79 degrees in Honolulu right now.

Here's an article from the local paper - it warns about idiots going up there and getting wicked sunburns and UV blindness since it's at 13,000 feet and they don't know how to protect themselves. The worst thing is when tourists go scuba diving and then up the mountain. They get the bends about halfway up and die.

Mauna Kea Staff Fears for Safety of Snow Lovers

[Nabubrush]

The worst thing is when tourists go scuba diving and then up the mountain. They get the bends about halfway up and die.

I wouldn't have thought they could rise fast enough to give themselves the bends. I thought you had to be moving fairly quickly.

[CortJstr]

While we're questioning Mr. Dawg I'll join in. You work for the federal gov't right? Are all federal offices close Thursday or just the ones around here? I know only the offices actually in DC (or just outside) are closing early Wednesday but I dunno about Thursday.

[AlohaDawg]

I wasn't aware of any closures official. Monday is a holiday, obviously, but no other days in January.

In DC they are probably closing for the inauguration. I don't know why else Federal offices would close. Sometimes DC gets into a budget problem and furloughs DC employees every other Friday or something like that but the Fed offices aren't usually affected.

[AlohaDawg]

The worst thing is when tourists go scuba diving and then up the mountain. They get the bends about halfway up and die.

I wouldn't have thought they could rise fast enough to give themselves the bends. I thought you had to be moving fairly quickly.

It's a combination of how rapidly the pressure around you changes.

Driving in a car to 13,000 feet affects people who haven't been breathing pressurized air.... It's a whole lot worse for people who have been. The common warning is to wait 24 hours after diving to go up there.

About the Bends


Here's the nut of it:

"SCUBA diving requires breathing air under high pressure. Under these conditions, there is a significant increase in the amount of nitrogen dissolved in the body (body nitrogen saturation). The deeper the SCUBA dive, the greater the rate of body nitrogen saturation. Furthermore, SCUBA diving in high elevations (mountain lakes), at any given depth, results in greater body nitrogen saturation when compared to SCUBA diving at sea level at the same depth. Following SCUBA diving, if not enough time is allowed to eliminate the excess nitrogen stored in the body, altitude DCS (Decompression Sickness or "Bends")can occur during exposure to altitudes as low as 5,000 feet or less."

[CortJstr]

I wasn't aware of any closures official. Monday is a holiday, obviously, but no other days in January.

In DC they are probably closing for the inauguration. I don't know why else Federal offices would close. Sometimes DC gets into a budget problem and furloughs DC employees every other Friday or something like that but the Fed offices aren't usually affected.

The Wed/Thurs closing is for the inaguration (it's all the news has talked about for 2 weeks) I just thought maybe the "home offices" being closed might affect others farther away. I know my work slows up whenever the FDA is closed.

[AlohaDawg]

My home office is in Atlanta, although DC is 3rd on the current list of places to relocate to. After Chicago and Ohio.

[wombat]

That first link seems to be broken, but that was good, because I had to poke around the newspaper myself, and found out interesting things like the fact that the weather report includes a section on when the box jellygiraffe are due to arrive.

The spouse was willing to drive up to 8 hours to go cross-country skiing this weekend but it was raining everywhere.  I was almost afraid to tell him this story, but he took it well.

[AlohaDawg]

Weird, I just read that article and linked it not 2 hours ago. But it was from Thursdays paper.

I'll try to fix that.

<<Edit>> Works for me now, try it...

[miles]

Mauna Kea Staff Fears for Safety of Snow Lovers

It seems like Hawaii would be the ideal place to go if you hate snow, like me.  And I live in fuck*ng UTAH!

[AugustWest]

Mauna Kea Staff Fears for Safety of Snow Lovers

It seems like Hawaii would be the ideal place to go if you hate snow, like me.  And I live in fuck*ng UTAH!

The equator would probably be the ideal place.  Just sayin'...

[miles]

Mauna Kea Staff Fears for Safety of Snow Lovers

It seems like Hawaii would be the ideal place to go if you hate snow, like me.  And I live in fuck*ng UTAH!

The equator would probably be the ideal place.  Just sayin'...

OK, but still, a good place to go if you hate snow.

[AugustWest]

Mauna Kea Staff Fears for Safety of Snow Lovers

It seems like Hawaii would be the ideal place to go if you hate snow, like me.  And I live in fuck*ng UTAH!

The equator would probably be the ideal place.  Just sayin'...

OK, but still, a good place to go if you hate snow.

Mercury would be even better.  If you hate snow that is.

[AlohaDawg]

Hey, Aug, we're only, like, 30 degrees N of the Equator or so and it snows. It's the altitude, man.

Mt Kilimanjaro has year around snowfall and the equator runs just north of it, closer than Hawaii is to it...but it's also 19,000 feet.