Mt. Fitzherbert

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift slowly and in widely differing directions owing to light and variable winds. Dominant directions are westward and eastward at low altitudes and, at higher altitudes, southeastward early in the day to southwestward later.

Recent observations: Crews had a successful day in the field yesterday and are out again today. Final work on the new tiltmeter and camera sites, as well as a thermal-imaging flight, is underway. A camera set up on the old lava dome will take an hours-long sequence of close-up photographs of the active extrusion to gage the rate of activity. Monitoring data show no significant changes in well-established patterns of seismicity and ground deformation.