Snow, Snow, Snow 2013-12-27 12:43:36.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Sunday Night's Possible Culprit The snow machine has cranked!We received 6.6 inches of snow yesterday from the Clipper system that passed over the region, with another .7 inches falling overnight. Since the departure of that storm, the flow has shifted around to the west, which has combined with a passing upper-level trough to produce ideal upslope snow conditions. As a result, snow has continued to fall throughout this morning, with gusty west winds creating incredibly poor visibility (no more than 25 feet all morning).After this round of snow has

Christmas on the Rockpile 2013-12-25 20:59:33.000 - Jake Fedors,  Research Intern NULL After I woke up today I fixed myself breakfast and sat down to watch the classic holiday movie 'A Christmas Story' which isn't unusual for a Christmas morning but, this wasn't a usual Christmas morning for me. This is my first week on the summit of Mount Washington as the Plymouth State winter intern. So far my work on the summit consisted of shadowing the observers and data mining for a research project I am doing with Dr. Eric Kelsey. The project focuses on the effect the topography

Merry Christmas! 2013-12-24 19:02:19.000 - Tom Padham,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist My first experience de-icing in 80 mph winds As Mike mentioned yesterday, I will be taking over the position of Staff Meteorologist for our shift. I am very excited for this new opportunity to continue to grow in this great organization, and look forward to settling into my new role. I've been privileged to work with some great people in what has already been about 8 months on the summit, and I'm optimistic about the future for both myself and the observatory. To all of our members and fans, Merry Christmas

Change is Constant 2013-12-23 16:11:58.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Ever-Shifting Shift, at the Sunset Soiree Change is the only constant.This phrase has never rung more true for me than during my last 9 months as an employee of the Mount Washington Observatory.During my first four years as a weather observer, I worked with long-time Weather Observer/IT Specialist Steve Welsh. However, back in late March, Steve's time on the summit came to an end, leaving my shift without a shift leader. The powers that be decided that I was capable of stepping into that role, and I assumed Steve's

See Physics at Work! 2013-12-22 20:36:50.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer Canon Temperature Levels Out at 32 Degrees Every day, as part of our routine, we perform data quality checks on all the data we process on the summit, including data from each of our 19 remote mesonet sites. Upon checking over our sites this morning, I found something interesting. As you can see in the picture posted with this comment, the temperature at this site rocketed up and seemingly hit a ceiling at 32 degrees. While this may seem like a malfunction, after comparing to other sites, it was

Distance Learning Camera Work 2013-12-21 16:34:47.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Weather Observer & Education Specialist NULL Some days you just want to relax and ride out a rainy day. Today was one of them, and although I am at work I did find a way to relax. Something that I love to do is work on projects. One project that has been on my list is redesigning one of my Distance Learning camera cable connections. In the winter the cables are easily broken due to the cold. So I am in the process of streamlining the connection to allow for less

Messy Weather and Dreaming of Nor'easters 2013-12-20 15:38:06.000 - Michael Dorfman,  Weather Observer NULL Messy weather is on its way! While the bulk of the precipitation won't fall as snow for the summit or the valleys, the storm has the potential to be a dangerous ice and mixed precipitation storm. One handy tool to use when storms are on their way is the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center's maps (more specifically, their winter weather maps). Taking a look at their freezing rain maps, they are predicting a swath of ice across northern New England that has a high (70+ percent) chance of

Data Interruptions 2013-12-19 12:17:10.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Weather Observer & Education Specialist NULL There is never a good time update IT infrastructure on the summit of Mount Washington. Why? We constantly have data streaming in from various Mesonet locations as well as our own summit instrumentation. With this being said, this week updates are in the works. What this means for you is numerous interruptions to data flowing onto our website. This week please hang in there with us as we hope to have new and improved updates installed as soon as we can. While our site is experiencing lapses

Cold And A Snarling Mess Ahead 2013-12-18 23:23:26.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Baby it's cold outside. Mount Washington is typically one of the coldest locations in the state of New Hampshire. However, from time to time in the winter, our crown has to be passed down to a valley location to our north. Last week, the summit crew could certainly claim the crown as they were the coldest as they experienced a low of 22F below zero (30C below zero) on Friday the 13th. While some view this date and temperature as unlucky, I was lucky enough to be

So long for now! 2013-12-17 17:33:07.000 - Brian Fitzgerald,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Teaching during a Distance Learning Program After two years, nearly three winters, more than one hundred trips up and down the hill, two search and rescues, one thousand plus observations and countless Distance Learning programs, visitors, radio shows and sixty-plus observer comments, my time with the Mount Washington Observatory comes to an end. I have been unbelievably fortunate to work at 6,288 feet above the northeast with some of the most talented people in the meteorological community, helping to build one astonishingly important climate record. I want to