Never The Same 2013-02-16 16:51:37.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern Commute Up On Wednesday No two days on Mount Washington are the same. This might be hard to believe since the summit can be in dense fog for days at a time and many of the daily tasks on the summit have not changed much over the years. While I might be new to the summit, I'm constantly hearing the other observers say things like "This is new..." or "I've never seen that before..." leading me to believe it's not just my opinion. There are a plethora of differences that

Data Is Golden 2013-02-15 18:14:55.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist NULL Prior to working at the Mount Washington Observatory, I held jobs that dealt with Forensic Meteorology and Research Meteorology. A Forensic Meteorologist is someone that acquires data (weather reports, METAR's, radar imagery, satellite imagery, local accounts, etc.) for a location and assists in interpreting the cause and effect that weather may have had in a particular case - such as a criminal investigation, insurance claim, death, etc. In a similar fashion, a Research Meteorologist is someone that acquires data either directly (by setting up instrumentation) or indirectly (like those

Happy Valentines Day! 2013-02-14 17:36:51.000 - Marty,  Summit Cat Happy Valentines Day! Meow from the summit of New England. Not only has today been a purrrfect day on the summit with a beautiful undercast, but it is also Valentines Day. A day for me to say thank you to all my fans, supporters, and fellow four legged friends. The support you have given me and my fellow Observers has been incredible. Through memberships, connections with our educational staff, visits to the summit, and outings to the Weather Discovery Center, I have been privileged to meet so many of you. So,

A Week of First's and Q&A 2013-02-13 21:01:13.000 - Susanne Laundry,  Summit Volunteer NULL Having completed two prior volunteer weeks it was time to try a winter week. With a great deal of excitement and anticipation the week had arrived. Now I have been on the summit for one shift and as I write this the shift change meeting is taking place before we depart. What a spectacular experience this has been with many firsts. First ride in the SnowCat from the base to the summit with the added bonus of riding in the cab. First winter volunteer week at

A Day in the Life 2013-02-12 17:22:48.000 - Brian Fitzgerald,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL A sample day in the life as an Observer at Mount Washington Observatory:-5:30am: Wake up, immediately realize you're on top of a mountain and you need to be outside in 15 minutes, fully dressed and awake to take the first observation.-5:40am: Get ready for, then go outside, covered from head to toe after having a brief conversation with the night observer who is now going to bed about what's been happening outside, if there's precipitation that's fallen or any instruments we need to keep an eye

Winter Weather Education 2013-02-11 23:09:24.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Winter seems to be fully hitting its stride recently, with plenty of cold air and snow to be had over the last few weeks.The National Weather Service uses quite an array of terms to describe winter weather events, so much so that there is probably a good deal of confusion in circulation. So, let's take some time to clarify some of the terms you may hear before, during, and after these events:Winter Weather Advisory: Issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) when a combination of winter weather is expected (sleet,

Two Feet of Powder 2013-02-10 18:32:25.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Deck Drifting This weekend's Nor'easter certainly did not disappoint.While the massive snowstorm left behind some astronomically high snow totals (upwards of 40 inches) along coastal New England, originally, we were not expecting much on the summit.Computer models had a hard time agreeing, as they usually do, on the exact path of this storm. Originally, it appeared as if we wouldn't see too much of the white stuff up here on the summit--maybe a foot or so (still a decent mark, but nothing we're not accustomed to). However, as the

Volunteer's Comments 2013-02-10 00:10:05.000 - Pam Trett,  Summit Volunteer NULL The Snowcat ride up on Wednesday was great and lasted about 1.5 hrs. What a great week to be up on the rock pile! We had record high temps, and incredible winds peaking to about 117 mph. Two groups visited at the beginning of the week. Five hikers from NH, NY and NJ. We had a very nice visit, and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. On Saturday a group of eleven came up for an edutrip. Again, a real nice group of people from all over---NH, IN, CT and

Predicting Snowfall 2013-02-07 18:34:49.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Summit Intern Cloud Cover Begins to Increase Ahead of the Storm What tools do we use up here to determine how much snow might fall in a storm? There are many different models which are able to predict how much liquid precipitation may fall from a storm, however this cannot be automatically translated directly to snow depth. The water to snow ratio is determined by several factors, including humidity and temperature and crystal size and shape. One of the best tools for snow prediction that I have been shown during my internship on

Freezing Experiments 2013-02-06 06:38:19.000 - Michael Kyle,  Summit Intern As some of you might have seen on the Mount Washington Observatory Facebook page last night, the observers took advantage of the cold temperatures to display the properties of Charles' Law by use of balloons. In the past, the observers have used experiments in the extreme cold to show how boiling water crystallizes when thrown into the air and how a soapy solution can be used to make bubbles that freeze before sinking to the ground. While you might not see the extreme cold as we do here on the summit,