April Fools 2013-04-01 16:26:24.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL Today marked the end of a beautiful weekend. The past two days have had stellar visibility, low winds, and mild temperatures. I could not have asked for a better end to the month of March. If it was any indication of what this spring might hold, I am in. But surprise! One day later and the mountain has presented an entirely different scene. Fog, snow, and increasing winds have sent the summit back into a winter state today. Hopefully this is Mother Nature's form of an April Fools day

Great Weather And Easter Goodies 2013-03-31 17:24:58.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern Easter Goodies Happy Easter everyone. I hope that you were able to enjoy the amazing weather we had this weekend. Unfortunately it will be coming to an end as the next storm system moves in tonight. The past two days dozens of people made their way up Mount Washington to take advantage of the great backcountry skiing. Conditions were great for end of the season runs. Several people even wore bunny ears on their climb up for the holiday weekend, making for some interesting pictures next to the

March - In Like a Lion - Out Like a Lamb 2013-03-30 20:47:38.000 - Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist NULL Here on the summit, March came in like a lion with the first eight days having snow at some point during the day. Even after receiving nearly 69 inches of snow in March, you can start to feel that spring is in the air with nearly an hour and a half added to the length of day and warmer temperatures.Today was a nearly perfect early spring day here on the summit with temperatures in the upper teens and winds from

One Year Later 2013-03-29 15:57:17.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern NULL About this time last year I was sitting in my physical meteorology class learning about cloud physics. During one of my professor's lectures he talked about rime ice. He explained that when an object is in the fog or inside a cloud, and the air temperature is below the freezing point, microscopic water droplets can remain in liquid form in a supercooled state. These supercooled droplets that making up the cloud will freeze on contact as soon as they impact an object. As the droplets continue to impact the

Winter Fun In Spring 2013-03-28 18:50:58.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Northern Presidentials this morning. Driving through Pinkham Notch during the winter, I always pass a US Forest Service sign that reads 'The White Mountains Are Winter Fun!' And in the winter months, I always find myself thinking, 'Yeah they are!' However, since it is technically spring, I feel like the sign should now read 'The White Mountains Are 'Still' Winter Fun!' or 'The White Mountains Are Winter Fun...Even In Spring!' But, I'm not one to deface federal or private property, so this is more wishful thinking than anything. However,

Summit From the Sky 2013-03-27 16:38:41.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Mount Washington from over Maine Well, five days later and we are back on the summit. Our shortened off-week was due to a delayed shift change last week that got us off the summit a day later than usual. Despite this, I was able to fully enjoy my time in the valley with the added bonus of a beautiful flight to Maine on Monday. With minimal clouds, I was able to snap a few pictures of my other home, Mount Washington. Although it is spring in the valley's,

Some Weather Stats 2013-03-24 16:20:54.000 - Steve Welsh,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist NULL Recently I got to wondering what some of the weather averages and extremes have been since I started working up here on the Rockpile back in October 2007. A quick look through our F6 Monthly Data records pulled up some interesting numbers. Winds have gusted over 120 mph in 16, and over 130 mph in 6, of those 66 months and twice at or over 140 mph (naturally I was off shift for both of these events). Our peak wind gust during this time was 145 mph back

Spring on Mount Washington? What's that? 2013-03-23 17:28:38.000 - Brian Fitzgerald,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist One iced-up snowcat. It may be spring on the calendar, but up here on the rock pile today's temperatures have struggled to make it out of the upper single digits above zero with thick fog limiting visibility to less than 50 feet at times, along with snow and winds ranging between 40-110 miles per hour thus far. Needless to say, our overnight EduTrip scheduled for this evening was turned around by the brutal conditions they found at treeline, nearly 2,000 feet and 4 miles from the

Why Are We Up Here? 2013-03-22 17:35:08.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Summit Intern Rime Ice Buildup on the Summit One of the many questions that we get up here on the summit is 'Why do you need to hire people to live on the summit when you can have automated stations do the same work?' Yes, automated stations are quickly replacing the few manual stations that remain however the weather instruments on the summit require constant supervision to assure that they are working properly. Whenever the summit is below freezing and in the fog, something called 'rime ice' builds up on

Where's the Road? 2013-03-21 22:12:14.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Drifted 5-mile The second time was the charm for yesterday's shift change.Coming up the Auto Road on Wednesday morning, after the summit had received another two feet of snow with the Tuesday/Wednesday Nor'easter, we knew our chances of getting through were not great. After plowing through some major drifts on the 4-mile section, and with visibility rapidly deteriorating, we called it quits and decided to try again on Thursday.After a bright and early departure at 7AM from the base, we headed up to the 4-mile section with relative ease. However,