78MPH Wind Gust Recorded at the Base of the Summit 2015-03-14 15:02:55.000 - Dr. Eric Kelsey, Director of Research   Early on Thursday morning at 12:35AM, our mesonet station at the base of the Auto Road recorded a 78 mph wind gust:     Curious, I decided to investigate what caused this burst of wind.    The large scale pattern had a cold front approaching from the NW that night. Pictured below is a map of surface observations just minutes before the front hit the Presidentials:       Winds south of Mount Washington were from the SW at ~10

Waving at Waves 2015-03-13 20:40:55.000 - Nate Iannuccillo, Summit Intern   Last Tuesday, fair weather allowed me to enjoy what proved to be a splendid day of hiking in the alpine zone. While I was thrilled by the good conditions, there was something else that got me really... really…   Ecstatic!   Ok, what the heck was I so excited about?   Lenticular Clouds!   Alright, so what are lenticular clouds? In short, lenticular just means that they form in the shape of a lens, so they look really cool, as you will see.   But first, how do clouds

Wintry Mix Ahead? 2015-03-12 15:57:42.000 - Kaitlyn O'Brien, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Some may have woken up to the sight of a few snow flurries this morning, but these quickly dissipated through the day as a clearing pattern set up for the rest of today and is expected to continue into Friday. Clouds will be steadily decreasing giving way to sunshine this afternoon and evening. An area of high pressure will build into the region midday on Friday, allowing for generally clear skies. But looking ahead toward the weekend, another round of snowfall might be in store! 2AM Saturday morning

A Week on the Summit 2015-03-11 16:42:31.000 - Kendra Furman, Summit Volunteer   I grew up skiing the mountains surrounding Mount Washington looking up in wonder at what appeared to be a castle in the clouds, never thinking I’d be spending a week up here. After having such an amazing week volunteering at MWOBS this past summer, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to volunteer again, this time for a winter week. I was lucky enough to arrange a week off from the Hospital where I work, left Rhode Island at 2:30am last Wednesday and drove north for what could

Life On The Rock In March 2015-03-10 16:53:01.000 - Dennis Rosolen, Summit Volunteer    A beautiful day for my first ride on the sno-cat, quite an experience I tell you. It seemed to be a long ride up with pushing snow and backing up, I wondered if we were going to make it but at last we arrived in good form on the summit. I had the pleasure of being with Kyle, Tom and Mike again this trip and felt very comfortable with the week ahead, what a great bunch of guys. Now, the weather was typical, sunny and clear

Did You Forget About This Kitty? 2015-03-09 09:42:33.000 - Marty (Summit Cat), Translated by Mike Carmon   Haven't purred from me in a while, huh? There's a simple reason for that--I've been quite busy with my cat-naps and never-ending buffets of kitty treats (with a side of nip, of course). This winter has been way too cold for me(ow). I may be a Maine Coon, but even these frigid temperatures have been way too much for my delicate senses to handle. I've had to keep myself barred indoors for most of the winter, despite the observers attempting to lure me

A Dream Of Spring 2015-03-08 17:02:10.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   With the bulk of a cold and snowy winter behind us, I find myself dreaming of the warmer and longer days of summer. This brought me to the question: when does Mount Washington typically see its last snowfall? It can snow at any point atop the Rockpile, with snow being recorded every month of the year. I’ve personally seen snow fall in the month of June. But on an average year we see a roughly 2-3 month period with snowfall not exceeding an inch. Looking into the climatology,

Sixty One Days and Counting 2015-03-07 19:02:13.000 - Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   The last time the summit saw a temperature above 32°F was 61 days ago, back on 1/04/2015. The average temperature since then is 1°F below zero. Within that 61 day span there was a 5 day block where temperatures didn’t rise above zero! Compared to past winters 61 days isn’t that bad. In the winter of 1960 temperatures remained below freezing for 106 days, lasting from 12/14/1959 till 3/28/1960. The 5 days of sub-zero temperatures, this year is less than half of the 12 days’ worth

Learning From The Best 2015-03-06 19:52:36.000 - Adam Freierman, Summit Intern   My main objective for my eight or so weeks that I will spend as an intern here at the Observatory is to learn as much as I can about meteorology. Spending time every day studying models and working on forecasts I end up with a lot of questions about what I’m seeing. Sometimes I can get answers by reading discussions written by our night observers, or ones put out by the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. Other questions are better solved by reading through books we have

The Winds of March 2015-03-05 14:11:11.000 - Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   After the long brutal winter New England has been seeing so far this year, we are all looking for a slight break.  Like Tom mentioned yesterday, that break seems to be likely in coming days. This made me think about the old saying “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” I then asked myself, “How accurate is its meaning is for the summit of Mount Washington? Does that saying even apply up here?To get a quick and simple answer to these questions, I looked through our