Back to winter…

2006-12-03 08:43:57.000 – Jim Salge,  Observer

Rime on the lens…

The summit has in fact (finally) returned to winter. This morning temperatures briefly dropped below zero on the minimum thermometer for the first time this year, while wind chills have resided around thirty below. Rime ice and a bit of snow coats the peak, and there is a chance for more light snow in the forecast. Given that the summit had only picked up 0.2” of snow since November 8th, it was a welcome and beautiful sight.

A lot has been going on at the observatory this week. Researchers from Germany are up testing a new sonic anemometer, hoping that it survives this new onslaught of arctic weather. They came equipped with a high tech thermal imagery camera to see how the heat is retained by the instrument, and we’ll hopefully post some pictures of our instrumentation taken with that this week.

Our volunteers also brought some camera equipment this week, and as Paul mentioned in yesterday’s comment, he like to take pictures of rime ice with his large format camera. We intern posted a picture of rime ice ON his large format camera. To see more of Paul’s work from previous trips, click here.

And of course the biggest news of the day is the Weather Channel’s visit today. The will be shooting footage to use during tomorrow (Monday’s) Abrams and Bettes Show I’m pretty sure they’ll get all the extreme weather footage that they’ll need today!

Jim Salge,  Observer