A Great Way to Kick Off Winter!

2016-10-30 16:29:23.000 – Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist

It’s been a pretty wild shift week on the summit! After seeing above average temperatures and no real sign of winter our previous shift, this week has been a near polar (pun intended) opposite. Since Wednesday we’ve picked up 15.3” of snow, with most of that falling during our first major snowstorm of the season for the higher elevations on Friday when we picked up 10.6”. It was a lot of fun returning to winter conditions on the summit and battling the elements outside!

Our first major snow for many of the mountains of New England led to some media opportunities for the Observatory, and my fellow shift mates Ryan and Taylor did a great job assisting with the added attention. This was especially true for our Facebook Live connection, where we answered a lot of great questions about life and work on top of Mount Washington. In addition to this we had two live connections with The Weather Channel, making for a busy but successful day!

After the big storm a clipper system would quickly follow on its heels, but just before arriving late Saturday morning we were treated to a spectacular sunrise. Clouds had cleared off the summit just a few hours prior, with overhead clouds already advancing over the summit and into Maine. Precipitation aloft right as the sun was rising over the horizon helped to break up the colors, lighting up the sky. To our west a rainbow even formed as rain began advancing, which made for some pretty amazing pictures including the one below.

Besides all the amazing weather, Halloween is tomorrow and I’m looking forward to carving a few pumpkins with the crew, more pictures to follow!

Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist