I experienced my second highest wind guests today

2012-12-21 21:29:00.000 – Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Hays wind chart for December 21st

We had another extreme weather day here on the Summit. We started off the day with temperatures in the teens with snow and fog, which of course attaches itself to everything that it comes in contact with and forms either rime ice or glaze ice. From a deicing standpoint, three to four inches of rime ice comes off the tower and instruments way easier than three to four inches of rock-hard glaze ice.

By midafternoon we had transitioned from snow to ice pellets. Eventually, precipitation transitioned briefly to freezing rain as temperatures rose steadily and peaked at 32 degrees just before five PM. However precipitation started transitioning back to snow shortly thereafter as temperatures started to fall with a cold frontal passage.

And what would the World’s Worst Weather be without some high winds. We started off the day with winds around 50 miles per hour. By 2PM, we had our first peak gust for the day of 137.1 miles per hour. Shortly after 3PM, we had a second gust of 137.1 miles per hour and sandwiched in between those two gusts, we saw a number of gusts in the 110 to 135 mile per hour range.

We weren’t the only ones experiencing these extreme conditions. As you may have read earlier in the week, we have a Meteorology student from Plymouth State University up doing a one week Internship with us this shift. And like all of the Interns I’ve worked with before, this type of extreme weather just seemed to make it all worthwhile for him.

So what about you? Would you like a chance to experience some of our extreme weather? If yes, you might want to sign up for one of our Day Trips, overnight EduTrips or an EMS climbing trip.

Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist