An Icy Trip 2013-05-18 17:26:38.000 - Cyrena Briede,  Director of Summit Operations Winter On Top I have returned to the summit for a couple of days and as usual, no two trips are the same. Early Friday morning was a nice day in the valley but on the summit it was snowing and in the fog. Before I drove up the Auto Road, I stopped and spoke with Sue at the base about the road conditions. She told me the bottom half was fine but the top half may be icy and chains were advised. The road was closed to

Just Another Spring Day 2013-05-17 17:18:26.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Today's Rime Ice Winter is back...again!Or is it? Actually, it's just another spring day on Mt. Washington.Today, we've received freezing drizzle, freezing rain, ice pellets (sleet), and snow, accumulating to six-tenths of an inch.How odd is that? Well, considering Mt. Washington averages 12.5 inches of snow for the month of May, it's not so strange.Temperatures have hovered in the 25-30 degrees F range throughout the entire day, which, when coupled with thick fog, has resulted in significant rime ice and glaze ice accumulation on top of the summit. Overnight

Wind Speed on Mount Washington 2013-05-16 16:17:01.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer Our Pitot Static Anemometer You may have heard about our extreme weather here on the summit, including our previous world record wind speed of 231 miles per hour recorded in April of 1934. Many other observatories in less extreme environments use propeller anemometers or other spinning anemometers to determine wind speed, but this does not work on Mt Washington, thanks to a weather phenomenon called rime ice. Rime ice builds on every exposed surface on the summit when we are in the clouds and below freezing, forming feathers

Volunteer Week 2013-05-14 23:59:18.000 - Debbie Bohr and Patti Chappell,  Summit Volunteers May Rime Ice Why do we come to Mt. Washington? We come because we love the views, the sunrises and sunsets, the diversity of the weather, and the winds. It's called the Rockpile, but it is much more than a pile of rocks. The day before we arrived, a new daily record high of 57 degrees was set. Today the temperatures were in the upper teens and the wind chills hovered around zero or below. This is a place of extremes, fog and sunshine, warmth and cold, mountains

Happy Mothers Day 2013-05-12 17:39:23.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL Happy Mother's Day to all of our MWObs Moms! Throughout my three years here (and today marks three years) there have been many 'Moms' on the summit. For one, my own Mom who has always supported my dream to work here and has been my continued best supporter, but all the volunteer 'Moms' on the summit. Throughout the past few years countless women have spent time on the summit lending a huge hand to the summit staff. They have cooked us soup when we didn't feel good, cakes

Winter 2013 Internship Recap 2013-05-11 23:38:24.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern NULL After five awesome months of being a summit Intern at the Mount Washington Observatory's , my tour is rapidly coming to a conclusion. My time here was nothing short of amazing. The experiences that this Internship offers are one of a kind. From working and living on the summit for a week at a time, to working on each step of the meteorological process my experience has included it all. I have met and gotten to know all our guests, visitors, and employees of the observatory. My time

Summer is upon us 2013-05-10 21:19:00.000 - Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist NULL The Cog has been coming to the Summit for the past couple of weekends and today was the first day the Auto Road was open to the public. Tomorrow will be the first day that the Stages will be bringing guests to the Summit.For all of you hikers out there wanting to come to the Summit just remember that the Valley may be plenty warm however up here on the 'rock' pile it's still in the 30's and 40's so bring plenty of extra layers. There's also

When Thunder Roars 2013-05-09 18:52:47.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern NULL With spring time upon us the weather in the White Mountain Region is getting nicer. Hikers are making their way back on the trails that have been covered by snow all winter. Don't let the nice weather deceive you. Spring and summer can have dangerous weather that hikers and any other participants of outdoor activities should monitor. Thunderstorms, especially severe can have a variety of threats that endanger anyone outside during the storm. These threats include hail, lightning, flash flooding, strong winds, and tornadoes. Each of these threats causes

Changes on the Way 2013-05-08 06:22:44.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist NULL An incredible stretch will come to an end later today.The month of May still has yet to see any fog for the summit of Mt. Washington, and we are eight days into the month, at a location where we observe fog for an average of 60% of the year.In fact, one has to look all the way back to April 29th, when the summit went in the fog for a mere 95 minutes, to find any trace of the shrouded phenomenon. However, looking at the models, this streak

The Observatory heads to Western Alaska! 2013-05-06 17:48:47.000 - Brian Fitzgerald,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Cherfonak, Alaska! The Observatory's Distance Learning Program is excited to announce that we'll be reaching out to another notoriously harsh climate-- Alaska! For the first time in our program's history we'll be connecting with not only 'The Last Frontier' state, but with a program sponsored by the University of Alaska with funding through the U.S. Department of Education. More specifically, tomorrow in the late afternoon (mid-day for the students) we'll connect with 20 students in Chefornak, Alaska, a village of around 400 native-Alaskans in coastal and