The Day's Watch 2014-06-14 12:34:40.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Marty on Daytime Duty As Kyle mentioned in his comments yesterday, we are a man down this week, so he has flipped to the 5PM-5AM night shift. This has left me as the sole observer on the day shift. Its been quite a hectic shift, so it's been a bit of a challenge to keep up with all of the goings-on at the summit this week!Luckily, I have two well-trained interns that have lent a tremendous hand, in addition to having a sort of 'guest' observer from the other

Up All Night 2014-06-13 20:19:37.000 - Michael Kyle,  Weather Observer NULL Like the weather, work here at the Mount Washington Observatory is 24/7 365 days a year. To cover every hour of the day the staff on the summit is broken into different shifts to cover the 24 hours of weather observations in addition to the other daily tasks we are responsible for. When one of us get to go on a much deserved vacation that means the rest of the staff is left to fill void of being an observer down. While we do not mind helping fill the

Busy Times 2014-06-13 07:35:56.000 - Cyrena Briede,  Director of Summit Operations NULL To say things are busy right now at the Observatory is an understatement! We just completed installing a complete solar array on the roof of the Weather Discovery Center, the new Extreme Mount Washington Museum has reached the day of it's grand opening, and we will be premiering a brand new website this summer. But that's not all!We are so fortunate to have many media requests from Quebec to Boston that want to come to the summit and tell their viewers about Extreme Mount Washington. I spent all

2014-06-11 18:08:10.000 - Ethan Wright,  Summit Intern NULL Living on the summit guarantees that you will meet a wide range of people with unique personalities. I am just starting the second work week of my internship and I have already seen many individuals at the summit with differing ethnic backgrounds and areas of interest. The observatory itself draws individuals for many different reasons. One of the groups that frequent the summit are hikers. The Appalachian Trail runs through the White Mountains and crosses the summit and offers the chance for hikers to experience the views of the highest mountain in

What a Week!! 2014-06-10 19:48:43.000 - Gary MacDonald,  Extreme Mount Washington Docent NULL As one of the first volunteer docents in the new Extreme Mount Washington exhibit, I've had the opportunity to be living on the summit the last week. I've seen gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, clear days and days of zero visibility, no wind and gusts to 60 mph, and to top it off the incredible experience of seeing the Northern Lights from the summit. But even more importantly, I've witnessed the incredible work that is going on at the Mount Washington Observatory, and the passion and dedication for

New Faces and Interesting Weather 2014-06-09 20:33:12.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Kaitlyn and I pause to look at the storm. Yesterday, our interns went for a hike to Lakes of the Clouds/Mt. Monroe to visit a new peak and meet our closest neighbors - the Lakes of the Cloud Hut Croo. Today, it was the Observers turn as Weather Observer/Educational Specialist Kaitlyn O'Brien and myself made the quick trek down to the hut. We briefly made introductions and conversation to some of the Croo before we decided to head back to work. As we headed out the hut, fellow

Painted Sky and Parapet 2014-06-08 18:56:39.000 - Caleb Meute,  Summit Intern Arielle and I painting the parapet today. As I sit here contemplating all of the different things I want to fit into this comment, I am enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee. I don't usually drink coffee, but when I do, I prefer it to be due to the result of being tired after waking up in the middle of the night to see the northern lights. Yesterday, we received word about the potential to see these Northern Lights overnight, due to a large coronal mass ejection from

Sunny Skies Ahead 2014-06-07 11:59:57.000 - Arielle Ahrens,  Summit Intern NULL Week two began with a staff retreat where both shifts and even the valley staff came up to the summit to attend a day-long developmental staff meeting. Even though we are a small non-profit, like any organization, there is always room for improvement. We discovered different ways to communicate as well as when each mode of communication is appropriate. We also learned and practiced these new communication skills through small group discussions. It was an educational and fun experience and I will definitely try to implement the techniques I

Instruments Here on the Summit 2014-06-06 16:42:09.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer Not a Bad Office View this Morning It constantly amazes me how many different instruments we have here on the summit to measure various variables. Here is a brief description of the variables we measure and the instruments we use to measure them.Wind Sensors: Our primary wind instruments here on the summit consist of a pitot tube anemometer and an alpine RM Young. The pitot tube measures wind speed by measuring the pressure of the wind, and the RM Young measures wind speed and direction with a spinning

Mount Washington is Calling You! 2014-06-05 16:32:48.000 - Kaitlyn O`Brien,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist View of the Summit from Boott Spur Trail I can't believe it's already June! It's amazing how quickly the time passes, especially when off-weeks overlap between months. I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the beautiful weather this past off-week and enjoyed a great hike with my friend Ashley. Speaking of hiking - after looking at the calendar today, I noticed we're getting closer and closer to our 14th Annual Seek the Peak Hike-a-thon event on July 19! If you enjoy spending time outdoors and hiking