Trip Season! 2015-01-11 18:46:30.000 - Caleb Meute, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   I have been anxiously awaiting my first exposure to the educational overnight trips for the past couple of months, and now that the first one has returned to civilization, I can’t wait for the next! The group who came up for this particular trip was great and it was a pleasure getting to know all of them. They arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately jumped right into the action. Instructor: Joe Lentini, professional climbing guide and Vice President of the New Hampshire Mountain Rescue Service, took them outside and started

Observing the Boundary Layer From Atop New England 2015-01-10 20:22:07.000 - Michael Wessler, Summit Intern   There are few things that have the power of hands-on learning. As a student in the field of Meteorology, a lot of time is spent in lectures and labs, or analyzing data in front of a computer. While there is real value in this learning, the classroom can only get you so far. When I step out onto the windswept observation deck and into the elements, I’m able to give meaning to all the coursework I have done so far.My experience on the summit

Cold Cold Cold... and Cold 2015-01-09 17:03:39.000 - Caleb Meute, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   If you live in New England/the eastern half of the United States, or watch the news at all or read the observer comments, you know that this has been a cold week. For me, I do not know exactly what the coldest temperatures I have experienced prior to this week are, but what I do know now is that they would not even come close to comparing to what we have experienced here on the summit of Mount Washington. The prior observer comments have discussed the

Old Man Winter Has A Cold Grip On New Hampshire! 2015-01-08 17:41:26.000 - Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Overnight on Wednesday January 7th temperatures across the state of New Hampshire dropped well below zero, with the coldest temperature of 34 degrees below zero observed here on the summit of Mount Washington. The temperature on the summit dropped low enough that we were able to perform some fun cold weather experiments; turning boiling water to snow and blowing bubbles that freeze in mid-air. These sub-zero temperatures were the result of a deep upper level trough that transported artic air down

The Mount Washington Observatory at the American Meteorology Society Annual Conference 2015-01-07 17:34:11.000 - Michael Dorfman, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Phoenix to present a poster of my research on model biases on Mount Washington. I will attempt to broadly summarize my research here. I looked at Model Output Statistics (a description for which can be found here) for two models run by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (the GFS and the NAM) and compared them with actual recorded variables on the summit. In this analysis, I looked specifically at

Monday's Winds and Cold 2015-01-06 22:34:37.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Monday and Monday night can be summarized by two words: cold and windy. As low pressure from Sunday exited, it dragged a strong arctic cold front south and eastward bringing the first blast of cold air for the week ahead. From 0000 EST to 2400 EST, the summit dropped 43F degrees going from 19F/-7C all the way down to -24F/-31C before finally bottoming out. As temperatures were dropping, winds were increasing as a tight pressure gradient set up behind the exiting low to our northeast and an incoming

Hold On To Your Hat! 2015-01-05 18:10:42.000 - Kaitlyn O'Brien, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   As you may have noticed, it's been pretty breezy across much of the state to say the least! Windy conditions are expected to persist overnight before slowly tapering off mid-day on Tuesday. We can thank a strong pressure gradient for this blustery weather. It's actually pressure systems that drive the winds that we feel, both on the surface of the Earth as well as aloft. To briefly explain the dynamics, it's important to think of the atmosphere as a fluid; similar to an ocean. In the

Cold And Windy Ahead 2015-01-04 21:23:25.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   It’s about to get windy and cold, not just for the summits but for the whole of New Hampshire. The summits and low lands of NH will see temperatures falling tonight, during the day Monday and right into Monday night. By the time things bottom out, lowlands of northern NH will be seeing ambient air temperatures ranging between 10 below and 20 below. In southern NH the plunge will bottom out in the single digits above, even along the coast. At the same time, winds will be on the

An Exciting New Year 2015-01-03 17:05:35.000 - Kaitlyn O'Brien, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With the turn of a new year, there are already lots of exciting events going on at the Observatory! For New Year's Eve, we hosted several guests who were thrilled to ring in the New Year at 6,288 feet. Unfortunately, the summit was socked in the clouds limiting any chance of decent visibility, but that sure didn't dampen spirits. Thanks to volunteers Ken and Andrew, the guests and crew were treated to an exquisite seven course meal, followed by a jovial toast at midnight. Everyone enjoyed themselves

Cold On The Outside Warm On The Inside 2015-01-02 17:48:54.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   So far this shift week (which started on Tuesday instead of the typical Wednesday this week), temperatures have yet to rise above 5F/-15C. Although cold, it is kind of expected this time of year where 30 year daily average temperatures are right around 5F/-15C for nearly the entire month. With this kind of cold, it sometimes takes more time to dress up in the various layers to go outside than the actual time we are outside to do our weather observations. So what do