I Did Not Get Blown Off, I Persisted

By Alyssa Bélanger

Hello again! To write this farewell blog summarizing my three months on the remote summit of Mount Washington, I decided to take a good bit of time to reflect.  I thought about my emotions during the plane ride out to the northeast, the challenges I faced, and looked through the insane amount of pictures on my camera roll.  Fear not, I will not post all 878 and counting photos, just the highlights from my time on the rockpile.

Too many pictures from my time up here.

Thinking back to coming out here, I could not have been more terrified. Yes, there was excitement mixed in, but this would be my first crack at forecasting and first time moving far away. I went to the MWOBS valley office and immediately felt stress being lifted off my shoulders. I was met with friendliness and encouragement for the coming months. My first shift at the summit was an indicator for how amazing life could be up here. From incredibly welcoming volunteers and observers to seeing the Aurora Borealis for the first time, I couldn’t have asked for a better week. This of course carried on to each shift. Yes, the weather is very cool, but the people?  Even more so  (and Nimbus).

Marcia, one of the volunteers my first week, took pictures of me doing the morning radio call without me knowing. While Karen was up here, we saw one of the best sunsets ever. Interview with Nimbus went…interestingly. Watching basketball with superfan Maddie has never been more entertaining. Amy had her last sunset up here. Claudia, the other volunteer my first week, loved to tell stories with demonstrations.

Next, the challenges came. After settling into a groove with tours with my “customer service high-pitched tour voice” came learning how to forecast and starting my research project. After three months of practicing, my forecasts are still far from perfect. However, I am very proud of myself for taking the first step and beginning my learning journey to forecasting. I can definitely see the improvement between my first and last Higher Summits Forecasts.

Me outside confirming that it is indeed windy.

I hadn’t done an individual research project before, so I had trouble getting started. I knew I wanted to continue Weather Observer Maddie’s work on fall foliage, but wasn’t sure with what. In one of the early papers I read, I came across the term anthocyanins – one of the pigments in leaves that produces the red coloration. I thought, hey that’s actually really cool, but I bet there’s no data. At the next science committee meeting when I casually brought it up, Georgia Murray at the Appalachian Mountain Club directed me to the PhenoCam Network. From there, my project idea developed: provide a literature review on anthocyanins and lay a framework for analyzing data from the PhenoCam Network.

I specifically analyzed the green chromatic coordinate (GCC) and red chromatic coordinate (RCC). These are calculated from the images the network takes and they use GCC to determine when the peak of fall coloration occurs. I also experimented with RCC to predict peak and found that it was a better indicator for maximum fall colors at the site in Vermont I examined. Below shows how far away peak dates obtained from using GCC and RCC were from dates determined by a visual assessment, the visual being the zero line here. GCC dates had a standard deviation of 7.59 from 0, while RCC dates had a standard deviation of 2.63 from 0. RCC is clearly the better choice for determining peak foliage!

Spread of how far off peak foliage dates determined using GCC (green dots) and RCC (red dots) were from the dates obtained from visual analysis. GCC dates are more widespread and less accurate than dates from RCC.

Sitting on the couch eating a cookie bar, I realized how much I’ll miss it up here. There’s no other place where I’ll get to experience trying to stand in 100mph sustained winds to then gather around the Obs deck camera to make fun of the attempt. Group dinner every night was a welcomed stress reliever and allowed me to hear so many fun stories. It was a unique experience that I can’t find the right words for. Instead of trying and babbling more than I have, I’ll just say thank you to MWOBS for allowing me to have this experience and putting faith in me for this internship. To my fellow interns this fall, thank you for making this a fun and silly season! To Amy, Karl, Ryan, and Maddie, thank you for being patient with me with forecasting and showing me just how fun it can be on the summit. Catch you on the flippity flip!

Me enjoying the outside, sometimes forgetting a hat.