In message , Erich Habich
writes
This years hurricane season is especially violent.
Whilst Hurricane Ivan is still on his way to wreak havoc,
another storm is brewing off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Present projections place Arecibo Observatory within the path of TS Jeanne,
which already has windspeeds of 63 mph.

I do not know what windspeeds the Arecibo
dish can withstand without sustaining damage.

The dish can probably stand almost anything that the atmosphere can
throw at it (with the possible exception of very large hailstones). It
is build into a depression in the ground. The gantry holding the
receiver assembly will be more vulnerable but should still handle 100mph
winds without too much effort.

Does someone know? I would button down the hatches, in any case.

The big dish Jodrell Bank weathers UK winter storms well in excess of
60mph on the Cheshire plain and that is a full dish on alt-az mount. It
has to be stowed to minimise wind loading during really bad storms.

Big dish steerable scopes have collapsed due to weather in the past.
ISTR One went down in Greenbank some while ago. And the increasing
participation in global VLBI leads to people pushing the envelope to
stay online during adverse weather conditions.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown