Just another Fall Foliage Season at the Cog Railway By Randall Armor| December 9, 2024 Each year, from late September thru mid-October, Mount Washington presents her best, most colorful face to the world. The onset of Autumn is always spectacularly beautiful up here, bringing with it an equally spectacular part-time migration of admirateurs du feuillage (as our friends across the northern border might politely say). The first six weeks of Fall ’24 saw an unusually dense influx of leaf-seeking out-of-towners converging on our rocky little chunk of paradise. Now, don’t get us wrong– tourism is the lifeblood of our

Cog Railway Mesonet Overview By Keith Garrett | November 12, 2024 Skyline mesonet station installation on September 3, 2024. The Cog Railway Vertical Profile is nearly online. Currently, three new stations have been brought online. The first is at 2,620 feet, in an open grassy area next to the pond at Marshfield Station at the base of the Cog Railway. The next is at 3,430 feet along the tracks, close to an area called Cold Springs. Continuing uphill, the third station will be installed at 3,850 feet attached to an on top of Waumbek Station. Half Way

In Remembrance: Guy Gosselin By Rob Kirsch | July 20, 2024 Quodumque Est Durus, Nobis Maxime Placet Life Trustee and Former Executive Director Guy Gosselin died during the early morning on March 7, 2024. He was a lifelong resident of Gorham, NH, a consistent contributor to his community and state, a father of three, a grandfather and great grandfather to more, an intellect in the spirit of the renaissance and a friend and mentor to hundreds who had the privilege to cross paths with him. Guy was influential in more ways than this brief remembrance can describe, and he

Record Gust, Human Grit: 90 Years of Big Wind By Ellen Estabrook | April 10, 2024 “’Will they believe it?’ Was our first thought. I felt then the full responsibility of that startling measurement…” Salvatore Pagliuca, Weather Observer and electrical engineer, wrote those words in the observer logbook on April 12, 1934, upon noting a record wind velocity on the summit of Mount Washington of 231 miles per hour. This record, confirmed by the National Weather Bureau, still stands as the fastest wind speed ever recorded at a staffed, non-automated station. It is here that we turn our attention

Excerpt of “Will They Believe It?” By Rachel Slade | April 4, 2024 Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from Rachel Slade’s visit to Mount Washington Observatory last April on the 89th anniversary of the famous “highest wind ever recorded.” The entire feature will appear in the September/October 2024 issue of Yankee Magazine. The excerpt appears here with Yankee’s permission. Mount Washington’s famously changeable climate makes the summit an ideal location to study the wonders of our restless atmosphere, and 90 years ago this April, three men stationed there experienced some of the most extreme conditions ever recorded while doing

Remembering Marty By Ken Rancourt | January 25, 2024 Known throughout New England as "Marty on the Mountain," Marty Engstrom passed away on Jan. 4 at his home in Fryeburg, ME, according to his family. He was 86 years old. Engstrom worked for 38 years on Mount Washington as an engineer at the WMTW transmission station; he wrote about his experiences in his 2003 book titled “Marty on the Mountain: 38 Years on Mount Washington.” Marty was already on the Mountain for over ten years when I met him in the fall of 1979. Guy Gosselin's (Obs Director) assistant,

The Shared History of AMC and the Mount Washington Observatory By Matt Morris | December 13, 2023 Courtesy of the Mount Washington Observatory Library. April 11, 1934: It was relatively warm on the summit of Mount Washington. Below freezing, but not by much. But more comfortable temperatures were not a reason for relief for the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory. Two walls of the Observatory building were caked in ice nearly a foot deep and the wind was picking up. The observers decided to stay up in shifts that night, taking measurements with a radio to

The Mount Washington Club By Peter Crane | October 1, 2023 The Observatory recently received a thoughtful gift from the family of the late James E. Welsh Sr. of Limerick, Maine. The donation was of a corkscrew which had an attached medallion from the “Mt. Washington Club”. What, the family wondered, was this Club, and what was its relationship to the northeast’s highest peak? The item’s medallion also featured an image of the Summit House on Mount Washington, which was built in 1915, and which pointed the way to the significance of the “Club,” and to its founder, Henry

New Normals Reveal Valley and Summit Temperature Increases, Among Other Climate Trends By Brian Fitzgerald, Director of Science & Education | November 15, 2021 Chances are, you’ve heard a meteorologist refer to weather conditions as near, above, or below “normal.” But just what is normal for where you live? Who gets to say? How is it even determined? Every 10 years, the National Centers for Environmental Information [(NCEI) formerly known as the National Climatic Data Center] are charged with generating climate statistics known as U.S. Climate Normals, based on requirements from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and National