Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

Temperature Logs for Steamboat Geyser

Steamboat, located in Norris Geyser Basin, is one of Yellowstone's most famous geysers. Eruptions occur sporadically, but are well worth the wait. Columns of hot water reach heights up to 100 meters. This is followed by a raucus steam phase that can last for over a day, loudly discharging steam nearly 200 meters into the atmosphere.

Steamboat has proven more active during the early 21st Century than any time since the early 1980s. Between late 1991 and 2000, there were no eruptions. However, since May 2000, Steamboat has erupted 6 times... most recently on October 22, 2003.

The last 7 eruptions of Steamboat Geyser occurred on:
12 October 1991
2 May 2000
13 September 2002
26 April 2002
26 March 2003
27 April 2003
22 October 2003

Photograph of 2 May 2000 Steamboat Geyser Eruption.

Steamboat Geyser 2 May 2000 Eruption.

Yellowstone Park staff recently began monitoring the outlet channel Steamboat Geyser. The temperature logs record the interesting "preplay" of water leaving Steamboat's vent and entering its runoff channel.

There are two sets of data: Steamboat Channel and Steamboat Boardwalk. The file names represent the feature (SB or SC, the year and the month).

About the data:
The data columns represent the following:
    j2ksec: seconds after Jan 1, 2000
    date and time: YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.sss
    temp: Temperature in degrees centigrade

Please note: The time is in UTC (Greenwich mean time). To convert to Mountain Standard time (MST) you need to subtract 7 hours. To convert to Rocky Mountain Daylight time (MDT) you need to subtract 6 hours. Each file represents one month, starting at midnight MST on the first day of the month. Thus they start at 7:00 AM UTC.

Steamboat Channel-

Represents a thermistor located within the runoff channel about 75 meters from Steamboat Geyser. Since the runoff channel varies in location, the thermistor is sometimes relocated to the constantly evolving water channel.

Steamboat Boardwalk-

Represents a thermistor located 34 cm above the runoff channel thermistor. The boardwalk thermistor often records local air temperature, except when water flow is high.