A beautiful morning…from inside!

2007-01-21 08:29:02.000 – Jim Salge,  Observer

Dawn through the window…

Looks can certainly be deceiving. Plug your ears and rely solely on your eyes to tell you about the morning on Mount Washington, and you would think it were the most beautiful, most calm and most serene dawn you’ve ever seen. Open your ears though, and suddenly the world is a ravaging place, set to rip the lens from your face as you tried to work a camera. The views this morning were all taken from behind glass.

Winds remain the story on the mountain this morning. After peaking out last night at 121mph, they have been slow to abate. Temperatures are still combining with winds for dangerous windchills this morning, but conditions should moderate through the day. Tonight’s sunset should be less inviting to experience from outside!

An interesting note about the winds…these were about the least gusty high winds that I can remember seeing up here, both in person and in studying historical charts. Sustained winds at 100+ mph usually lead to gusts of 130 or higher, but at times, gusts were only reaching 105 from the century mark. Fairly remarkable! The trend has not held through this morning, which makes this chart the more interesting. On the bottom left chart, the light blue line is average speed, and the dark blue is gustiness. Note how close together the two lines are until after the peak winds had passed. If only…

Jim Salge,  Observer