Three

2008-12-06 17:57:28.000 – Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern

Snow-covered summit

…And then there were three.

The remainder of this shift is promising to be a very quiet one on the summit—as far as staff goes. As Mike F mentioned in a comment a few days ago, he is turning his coat and switching to our shift. He worked only part of our shift this week, and headed down this (Saturday) morning. That brought the total number of staff up here from 5 to 4.

In addition, we lost our volunteer for the week a few hours later due to extenuating circumstances. That brought the number of staff from 4 to 3.

So here we are…as bare as a shift can be…a day observer, a night observer, and an intern. People-wise, it’s going to be quiet for the rest of the shift.

In loud contrast to that, the weather for the rest of this shift looks to be anything and everything BUT quiet. Weather-wise, the first part of the week has been fairly subdued. With the exception of Thursday, when we had a bit of snow and gusty winds, you could describe conditions up here as relatively tame. Winds have since dropped off enough to allow the three-cup to go up, and the snow has long since subsided. But peeking ahead in the forecast, winds (which will probably be around 20 mph tomorrow afternoon) are looking to speed up to near 90 mph overnight tomorrow, maybe with some accompanying snow. That’s more like it!

As a meteorologist, one is always wading into shark-infested waters when discussing weather more than three days out. But as of right now (and I’ll preface this by saying a lot can change in four days), shift change looks to be mighty interesting. A fairly potent storm is shaping up for Wednesday—for pretty much the entire eastern seaboard. Who knows what the next few days will bring to change that forecast, but as for right now, the numbers look more impressive than anything I’ve seen since late August (wind-wise).

So, even though the summit will be quiet inside, outside, we may end up seeing some of the most interesting weather yet this winter.

It’s also noteworthy that with the lack of a volunteer, we are all going to try our hand at cooking dinner for ourselves, at least for the first time since I’ve arrived.

Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern