The Alaska Volcano Observatory yesterday downgraded the aviation warning code for Mount Redoubt from orange to yellow and the alert level from Watch to Advisory. Alert levels had been high since Mount Redoubt’s most recent rumblings starting March 15. The most dramatic eruptions happened between March 22 and April 4 when the volcano spewed ash, gas and steam up to 65,000 feet high. High level winds carried ash to Talkeetna, Skwentna and Trapper Creek while air traffic came to a halt for a few days. (more…)

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Mt. Redoubt started to rumble this past weekend. The Alaska Volcano Observatory and others are watching the volcano 24 hours a day. Mat Su Borough officials are putting in place their emergency preparedness training and setting up a website specific to the possible ashfall. Residents can also look at the Alaska Red Cross page and NOAA for information.  story first run 1/30

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The Alaska Volcano Observatory reports that as news agencies on the East Coast and around the lower 48 connected viewers to their website, their website crashed early Friday morning. Mt. Redoubt is being watched 24 hours a day. As of Friday afternoon, there were no signs of ash emission, but there is significant steaming from a new melt depression at the mouth of the summit crater, near the vent of the 1989 eruption.

News reports of Mount Redoubt’s possible eruption were featured on Yahoo, Google, CNN and other websites, all of which included the link to the Alaska Volcano Observatory website. The agency was expecting internet traffic, since they experienced the same thing with St. Augustine several years ago. The scientists had a low bandwidth version in place for the extra traffic, but the system still crashed.

Basic information is now available on the simplified website, but it doesn’t have the fancy maps, wind trajectories and cameras it had previously. Technicians are working on distributing the higher bandwidth to other servers.

Mount Redoubt’s status was lifted to orange today (wed). Government geologists are watching the volcano in the Cook Inlet area full time and are anticipating a possible eruption within the next few days.

According to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, a typical Redoubt eruption features a large explosion that can shoot ash clouds 40,000 feet high. During the last eruption, in April 1990, the ash plume disrupted air travel and sent ash across the state.