Avalanches In New England 2014-02-28 19:36:26.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer NULL Around two weeks ago, I participated in an AIARE level II course in Baxter State Park. For those of you who don't know where Baxter State Park is, this is an incredible piece of land in northern Maine. At just over 320 square miles in area, it contains something for every type of outdoor enthusiast, including avalanche terrain on Mount Katahdin. After taking this course, I understood, amongst other things, how incredibly intertwined weather and avalanche forecasting are. As it falls, the atmosphere directly affects snow's shape, size

Writing Remotely About A Remote Location 2014-02-27 18:24:25.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer NULL It is so easy to sit downstairs in our living room and completely forget we're living on top of a mountain. The occasional rumble of the wind or shaking of our stove's ventilation shaft is a gentle reminder that we are extremely isolated in an extreme environment. In case of an emergency, a snow cat rescue can be as much as 6 hours away, so we must rely on our own legs to get down the mountain.Although the mountain is physically isolated from the rest of

Winter's Not Going Anywhere 2014-02-26 20:58:10.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL March may be on the horizon, but winter is here to stay, at least for a while.Another blast of arctic air is now making its way into New England, which will keep temperatures in the valleys suppressed in the teens and twenties during the day for the foreseeable future, with overnight lows dropping below zero at times. In addition, a series of disturbances over the next week will bring several rounds of light snow, keeping that winter motif alive and well for the commencement of March.Up on

The Polar Vortex 2014-02-25 18:39:23.000 - Tom Padham,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist As Sam alluded to, the deep freeze has returned to the higher summits, and it looks to stay through the next several days across nearly all of New England. Temperatures on the summit fell to 15 below this morning, and the forecast calls for the summit to remain below zero until at least Saturday! While this cold spell will not be as strong as the one we saw during the month of January, when the summit dropped to 26 below, we still could see temperatures approach 20 below on Thursday,

32 Degrees? 2014-02-23 17:14:17.000 - Samuel Hewitt,  Summit Intern Our 7:00 PM observation Friday revealed that the summit temperature rose above the freezing mark for the first time since January 13th. Although the average temperature for this time of year is in the mid-single digits, it is still hard to believe that we have remained below freezing for the last 38 days! The last time the temperature remained under 32 degrees for more than 38 consecutive days was from January 28th - March 6th, 2012. The "mild" conditions were short lived however, as temperatures remained above freezing for roughly one

Sunrise Surpise 2014-02-22 16:29:48.000 - Michael Kyle,  Weather Observer Phantom Peak As many of you know, sunrise on the summit of Mount Washington is a remarkable sight. Many of you also know that as a weather observer part of my job is to go outside to the Observation deck at the top of the hour and observe the weather. During this time of the year, being the morning weather observer you get the unique perk of watching the sun rise while taking the 6:45AM Observation. Since I was the morning observer this morning and the summit was in the clear,

Marty-in-a-Box 2014-02-21 18:53:36.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist In A Box Despite the busy goings-on here at the summit, there is one staff member that remains constant, and his name is Marty.From the perspective of a furry feline that stands no more than a couple feet off the ground, one would suspect the hustle and bustle can seem even more overwhelming. However, ever since Christmas time, Marty has found a sufficient space in which to retreat when winter trip season is in full swing. It's the winter of Marty-in-a-box!Marty's box is perched on a ledge at the crux of

Volunteer Comments 2014-02-20 07:25:59.000 - John & Gina Rescigno,  Summit Volunteers NULL WOW, where do you begin, I guess in the parking lot where Slim starts ups the engine to the Snow Cat. This is an experience all in itself. Slim provided Gina, my wife, and I with a smooth ride up the mountain; I even got to sit up front. Watching him gracefully move enormous snow drifts to make way for us was spectacular. We were fortunate to have a clear day with visibility to the Atlantic Ocean, but the snow covered mountains is what we came for, and

Mystic Scenic Studios visits Mount Washington 2014-02-18 17:49:11.000 - Will Broussard,  Outreach Coordinator NULL As our museum space becomes transformed to welcome the installation of Extreme Mount Washington in just under 3 months, representatives from Mystic Scenic Studios , the group tasked with creating the exhibits, visited the jobsite to take a closer look at the space. Two fabricators from the Norwood, MA based studio traveled to the summit with Director of Museum Operations Bill Grenfell to obtain first-hand knowledge of the site and take accurate measurements of doors, stairways, and passageways. This process is key to navigating the future

Pressure and Wind on the Summit 2014-02-16 19:44:07.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer Graph of the windspeed (top) and pressure (bottom) The last few days have been full of change. On two occasions in the last few days, we had winds drop below 10 mph, just to rapidly ramp up again to near hurricane force. As a few of our overnight guests said when arriving on the summit last night in calm winds, 'This is Mount Washington?' Yes, yes it is. As if the mountain heard their statement, winds were gusting upwards of 60 mph when they woke up this