It's raining!
Sure, we'll probably only get 15mm out of this[0], but I was sitting in the door wells of the dome giggling liek little school girl.
We have 4 doors scattered around the dome onto the outside catwalk. At various times you have to be very careful to gauge the wind and work out which ones to avoid opening in order to avoid getting them ripped out of your hands. Think of an 80km/h gusting wind that is in turn being funnelled around the dome[1]. I could imagine it's blowing at 120km/h out there on the port and starboard sides right now. So I went around each door in turn to watch the rain barelling in (hint, don't open the leading side), and the lightning put on a nice show. On one door, the door did indeed get ripped out of my hands. These are heavy steel doors for a reason. I watched as the horizontal rain made its way past the dome. I put my arm out to get it buffetted into the door well. I couldn't even sit in the door well because it was so wet in there, so I sat out behind the inner door. Then I saw the water leaking into the inner dome, so I decided I better indeed close the outer door. Which meant going out and heaving the door, and I can't have been outside for more than 5 seconds. And yet, as I type this, I am soaked. I have left a trail of water behind me in the corridors I have walked down.
Someone should have told my year 9 school camping self, that one day I would love rain. In particular, a warm shower afterwards. As it was, I started off this afternoon walking around the mountain top. Sitting down on a rock, I heard the thunder come in. I thought, bugger it, fair way from the dome, don't care if I get wet. After a while, I started having second thoughts, and didn't exactly go the long way back to the dome, although didn't take the short way either. Got inside, turned on my laptop, went upstairs, and as soon as I opened a catwalk door, it started dripping. Nowhere like it is now, mind you.
I can conclusively say I am happier than the observers right now.
[0] Edit: Actually, 55mm in 24 hours. 16cm in the rainguage on the mountaintop, but I don't know when it was last emptied. I'm fairly sure it would have started out dry before last week.
[1] I saw this effect tonight as I watched the approaching cloud, which was lower than head height, turn into fog on the mountain top. I went around to the trailing edge to watch the dome sweep a path of un-fogness into the wind. Or something. My explanation sucks.
We have 4 doors scattered around the dome onto the outside catwalk. At various times you have to be very careful to gauge the wind and work out which ones to avoid opening in order to avoid getting them ripped out of your hands. Think of an 80km/h gusting wind that is in turn being funnelled around the dome[1]. I could imagine it's blowing at 120km/h out there on the port and starboard sides right now. So I went around each door in turn to watch the rain barelling in (hint, don't open the leading side), and the lightning put on a nice show. On one door, the door did indeed get ripped out of my hands. These are heavy steel doors for a reason. I watched as the horizontal rain made its way past the dome. I put my arm out to get it buffetted into the door well. I couldn't even sit in the door well because it was so wet in there, so I sat out behind the inner door. Then I saw the water leaking into the inner dome, so I decided I better indeed close the outer door. Which meant going out and heaving the door, and I can't have been outside for more than 5 seconds. And yet, as I type this, I am soaked. I have left a trail of water behind me in the corridors I have walked down.
Someone should have told my year 9 school camping self, that one day I would love rain. In particular, a warm shower afterwards. As it was, I started off this afternoon walking around the mountain top. Sitting down on a rock, I heard the thunder come in. I thought, bugger it, fair way from the dome, don't care if I get wet. After a while, I started having second thoughts, and didn't exactly go the long way back to the dome, although didn't take the short way either. Got inside, turned on my laptop, went upstairs, and as soon as I opened a catwalk door, it started dripping. Nowhere like it is now, mind you.
I can conclusively say I am happier than the observers right now.
[0] Edit: Actually, 55mm in 24 hours. 16cm in the rainguage on the mountaintop, but I don't know when it was last emptied. I'm fairly sure it would have started out dry before last week.
[1] I saw this effect tonight as I watched the approaching cloud, which was lower than head height, turn into fog on the mountain top. I went around to the trailing edge to watch the dome sweep a path of un-fogness into the wind. Or something. My explanation sucks.