Highlights from the Observatory’s 2025 Annual Meeting

By Drew Bush, Executive Director

Every year, we gather for Mount Washington Observatory’s Annual Meeting. This year, the event saw record attendance, with more than 70 of our members, partners, Life Trustees, Trustees, staff, and volunteers in attendance at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, NH on Saturday, May 31 or watching via Zoom Video Conferencing.

Board of Trustees President Erica Broman and I shared updates on the progress that the Observatory made in 2024, a year that was truly a turning point. Not only have we balanced our budget and become good fiscal stewards of this 93-year-old organization, but our summit facility has undergone much needed repairs, our school programs now serve more than 6,000 children, and we’re broadcasting our forecasts across the airwaves in the Green Mountain and Granite states all while undertaking incredible new research. You can catch up on all of this by reading our 2025 Annual Report and growing list of supporters.

The Observatory’s 2025 Annual Meeting was held at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center.

On the summit, a generous donor has made it possible to replace all of the storm windows at our weather station with more durable, clear material; install new adjustable desks to improve our staff’s working environment; replace old and faulty light fixtures and thermostats; install new bunk room windows that provide better ventilation and fire egress; replace water-damaged ceiling tiles; paint many areas in need; and, ensure our tower drains better each spring when the ice that coats it during the winter melts. Our Board of Trustees also approved an Organizational Risk Management Plan and Summit Weather Station Emergency Action Plan.

New storm windows in our weather room.

It’s no exaggeration to say our educational programs have grown by leaps and bounds under the leadership of Director of Education Brian Fitzgerald. In 2024, we served more students than ever before during school day, afterschool, virtual, and field trip programs. Our member schools—those who study with our team all year—grew from 7 to 22. We launched a new Storm Scouts Summer Day Camp, added a summer offering for teacher professional development to our winter Arctic Wednesdays offering, Peak Perspectives, and even have begun providing memberships for New Hampshire’s libraries. All of this work makes Mount Washington more accessible to young students, their families, and Granite State residents.

Over the past year, we’ve moved beyond forecasts for the White Mountains to provide weather information across the Granite and Green Mountain states—meaning each dollar of member support quite literally translates into weather information that keeps millions of people safe. At the same time, we’ve invested in cutting-edge technology such as a new ground-based 3D scanning doppler LiDAR (which makes new research possible and our forecasts more accurate) that will soon be installed at Bretton Woods Ski Area.

Our Mount Washington Regional Mesonet grew from 17 to 23 stations in 2024, and in coming years will expand statewide to more than 50 stations. This represents the future of weather science and our investments have attracted new research partnerships with many universities, the United States Air Force, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and Eversource Energy.

The meeting concluded with a fascinating presentation on work the Observatory has undertaken thanks to support from The Cabot Family Charitable Trust, The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire, the Patricia and Charles Walker Family Fund, and The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Brian Fitzgerald and Director of External Affairs Charlie Buterbaugh presented a teaser on a new White Mountains Almanac that the Observatory will launch in Fall 2025 in partnership with the Appalachian Mountain Club and Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. It will chronicle the annual changes to the climatology and ecology of the White Mountains for researchers, educators, and visitors to our region. A New England artist will even interpret the science, with more than 60 artists having applied to the White Mountains Almanac competition. All in attendance at the Annual Meeting had a chance to vote to select their favorite among four finalist artist/illustrators. We look forward to announcing the winner in the coming weeks.

The Northern Lights were captured on June 2, 2025 by Weather Observer Charlie Peachey.