Changes in the Weather

2008-11-09 15:33:05.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer

Winter returns

As Mike touched on in his comment yesterday, since Tuesday the summit has been experiencing a heat wave of sorts, at least relatively speaking. Average daily temperatures for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were 38, 41, 41, 44, and 41. Although that may not sound like a heat wave in November to most people, you have to consider how that compares to average. Those average daily temperatures are 14, 17, 17, 20, and 18 degrees above normal respectively. That’s significant. In fact, for the month of November so far, our average temperature is running a whopping 12.3 degrees above the average. Of course, a lot can and undoubtedly will change during the rest of the month.

Actually, a lot has changed just in the last 24 hours. Late last night, a cold front associated with a low passing off to our north swung through New England. The passage of this front started a free fall of temperatures that will continue into Tuesday when we will likely see readings in the upper single digits.

Of course, that fall in temperature has brought rime ice back to the summit and also changed any remaining precipitation left from that low over to snow. All of this is certainly welcome by the entire crew on the mountain. It is always good to see the summit coated in white again and after all, it is winter now and it should be cold and snowy!

Brian Clark,  Observer