Convective Weather Week Comment

2009-07-05 16:10:48.000 – Alex Jacques,  Summit Intern

Convective clouds forming over the mountains.

This shift certainly has been more active weather-wise than my previous shift. The constant drizzle and light rain had morphed into heavier convective showers and thunderstorms.

Although we have been in the fog for the majority of this past week, occasionally we were treated to a view of classic cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. The picture taken here was from Friday when we had a break in the fog. Later on that day, I experienced my first thunderstorm on the summit. Lightning did not strike the top of mountain this time, so I will have to wait for another one to come around. That night the summit cleared out again which allowed the staff to see lightning generated from a thunderstorm over in Maine. It was a pleasant treat to see nature’s fireworks in action one day before July 4th.

Fog unfortunately shrouded the summit so viewing holiday fireworks last night was impossible. A cold front pushed through the region shifting our winds back to a more common northwesterly direction. Wind speeds increased during the day with hurricane force wind gusts at times. Hedda, Dennis (our volunteer for the week), and I took this opportunity to experience the high winds by going out on the observation deck. Quite an experience indeed, it isn’t too often that one can lean back and have the wind support them. A shower of rain and small hail passed by the summit yesterday afternoon as well. Tonight we hope the summits will clear out giving us a bird’s eye view of any fireworks that may have been scheduled tonight or postponed from yesterday.

This has been a week of many firsts for me on the summit, and I hope more will occur in the following weeks.

Alex Jacques,  Summit Intern