My First Four Days

2013-09-07 20:58:56.000 – Samuel Hewitt,  Summit Intern

NULL

Born and raised in seacoast New Hampshire, I have experienced a variety of severe weather phenomena, including thunderstorms and nor’easters. They say that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait 5 minutes and it will change. Up here on the summit however, it is a whole different story. In the blink of an eye the summit can go from being engulfed in fog, to in the clear with visibilities of over 100 miles! It is hard to believe that at night, lights from ships in the Atlantic Ocean can even be seen!

In the three days that I have been up here, I have already experienced some extreme weather conditions. On my first day, I assisted two of my colleagues in taking down two of the Observatory’s R.M. Young anemometers from the top of the tower, as we were expecting icing conditions, and these instruments are not heated. Normally, this is a relatively easy task under calm conditions, but on this day however, we were battling 70+ mph winds. Two days later, on Friday, I awoke to the summit coated in a thin layer of rime ice, as temperatures dropped well below the freezing mark overnight. Although I have seen rime ice before, its delicate, feather-like structure never ceases to amaze me. I look forward to more of the same in the months to come!

I am honored to have been chosen for the Observatory internship this fall and I look forward to learning about the responsibilities of an observer as well as about the early climatology of the summit. I hope to gain more experience in higher elevation forecasting and a greater understanding of the atmosphere. I am excited to spend the next several months working in the ‘Home of the World’s Worst Weather!’

Samuel Hewitt,  Summit Intern