After the storm

2007-03-03 12:21:20.000 – Brent Antkowiak,  Summit Intern

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As the main slug of moisture from yesterday’s storm moved up the coast last evening, the center of the low pressure system moved overhead. This brought a near dead calm to the summit as the crew and our guests sat down for dinner. Within an hour, winds plummeted to fewer than 10 knots, then were followed by a quick return to the 40-50 knot range. It was rather eerie as I walked outside to find snow and ice pellets falling in the vertical, rather than the hurricane force wind driven horizontal snow that is all too common on the summit. The experience was short lived though, as by the time dinner was finished, the unmistakable roar of the winds had returned.

This morning the snow had ended and the summits were greeted with clearing skies and plenty of blowing snow. As I ventured outside for a walk around the summit, I was hoping that some yesterday’s nearly 11 inch snowfall would have remained on the peak. Of course though, as usual, the summit was scoured, despite a few minor drifts. Oh well, what else is new, at least Tux is the beneficiary.

I did find some fossilized footprints near the Yankee building, as shown in the picture. These little guys formed when several of the German students walked through a drift that was once at that location, during the storm yesterday. As the winds increased and changed direction, the loose snow in the drift was displaced elsewhere. Left behind, are the dense, elevated footprints as shown in the picture.

Brent Antkowiak,  Summit Intern