Big Changes

2008-11-20 15:45:44.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer

Anyone that is even somewhat familiar with Mount Washington knows that the weather can change drastically in relatively short periods of time. This has certainly been the case over the last few days. Four days ago, temperatures were in the mid 40’s and it was raining. Five days ago, the daily record high for November 15 was broken (the previous record was 45 degrees set back in 1993). However yesterday, upon arriving on the summit for the start of a new shift, my crew was greeted by temperatures just below zero with plenty of rime ice and several inches of new snow covering the summit.

This morning, the drastic change came full circle. When I took my first observation this morning just before 6 a.m., I observed a temperature of 7.3 degrees below zero. This assured that the daily record low for November 20 would, at the very least, be tied. An hour later, intern Mike observed a 6 hour minimum temperature for the synoptic observation of 8.1 degrees below zero, officially breaking the daily record low for November 20, which had previously been set in both 1951 and 1952.

The cold air entrenched not only on the summit but over the entire northeast is not going anywhere in the short term. Over the next couple days, temperatures will struggle to get even a few degrees above zero. Also, looking toward the weekend shows a decent chance of breaking another daily record low.

Brian Clark,  Observer