Cold Hope

2015-03-27 20:30:29.000 – Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist

We live and work on the summit fog eight days at a time. This means we have to pack eight days’ worth of clothing to wear in that time span. In the heart of winter, packing is easy – pack anything and everything to keep me warm. In the heart of summer, it is just as easy as it means I will be packing warm weather clothes (shorts, t-shirts) and a mix of light jackets, rain pants, etc to keep me dry and warm if/when needed. In the transitional seasons of spring and fall though, my bag typically sees a larger variety of clothes as weather typically varies between winter and summer-like conditions. However, for my first shift week back since the first day of astronomical spring (March 20), my bag has no variety – it is all cold weather clothing as winter conditions continue on the summit.

Earlier in the week, models were hinting at temperatures above freezing for the first time on the summit and this gave me hope that my bag would get a bit of a variety in the clothing department. However, as the storm approached and the models resolved its track, projected temperatures kept notching lower and lower keeping us in the cold sector of the storm. While the storm was passing yesterday, temperatures did inch up into the 20s but they never came close to rising above the freezing mark. As a result, our streak of consecutive days below 32F/0C continues, bringing our tally to 82 days and counting. Looking long-term, models are once again hinting at finally breaking this streak next Friday. After such a long streak of cold weather, I think all of us on the summit are all likely hoping for the warmer weather in the models. However, “hope is such a bait, it covers any hook” (Oliver Goldsmith), so at this point, I’m just going to leave the bait and let hope float a bit; but fingers crossed our cold weather streak will finally be broken, even if only for a day.

Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist