Unexpected clearing

2010-07-10 10:39:19.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist

Clouds over the Northern Presidentials

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: there’s always something new to see up here. Granted, I’ve only been here for 3 years and change, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t all that long. Regardless, I saw something new today.

Typically, when it is precipitating, we are in the clouds. This is basically because when snow, rain, or whatever is falling on the summit, there is enough low level moisture below us to put us in the fog when that moisture is pushed over the mountain by the wind. There are some exceptions to this, and I have experienced both snow and rain while we were ‘in the clear’. In the past, this has only happened when winds are very low (less than 10 mph). In this case, although the moisture is available to create fog, the forcing isn’t there to lift that moisture up the slope of the mountain to actually create the cloud.

This morning however, winds were sustained around 20 mph, it was raining fairly steadily, and somehow we have managed to be in the clear for the better part of the last couple of hours. This clearing has provided us with some interesting views of low clouds draped over the Northern Presidentials.

This sort of situation makes the hourly weather observations rather difficult to code, but the views we get make it well worth it!

Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist