Rain Shadows Around the World 2012-11-04 18:53:52.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Summit Intern Clouds formed by orthographic uplift. One of the many important characteristics of Mount Washington that bring extreme weather to the summit is its prominence in the Northeast. Mount Washington, combined with the surrounding summits of the Presidential Range, offer a substantial barrier to air barreling toward it. As air is forced to rise upwards, it cools and water molecules that were energetic enough to be shooting around on their own suddenly don't have enough energy to do this, and they succumb to the intermolecular forces between other water

Snow and Freezing Fog 2012-11-03 15:34:08.000 - Steve Welsh,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist After all the rain and wind from "Sandy" the last few days have been far less eventful. We went into the fog soon after arriving for our shift this past Wednesday and apart from a few brief breaks have remained pretty much socked in since then. Winds have been fairly light, however, the temperature has been slowly falling and we are now down in the teens. It looks like the cooling trend will continue for a few more days reaching the single digits by Monday. Outside everything is

Mount Washington in Alberta, Canada? 2012-11-01 17:34:19.000 - Brian Fitzgerald,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist Our Polycom Camera brings the summit to Canada! Today marks the first Distance Learning Program of the new school year, and the Observatory's first ever program offering in Canada! For those of you who may not be familiar with the Observatory's Distance Learning programs, these 45 to 60 minute programs are given to schools, libraries and science centers throughout the country (globally even) and cover topics like 'Extreme Weather Observations', 'Fundamentals of Climate', 'Life and Work at the Mount Washington Observatory', 'The Alpine Zone' and even custom

Windy Weather on the Summit 2012-10-31 18:58:42.000 - Mike Dorfman,  Summit Intern Splintered wood from a sign on the summit. As many of you know, there are two shifts that rotate working as summit crew. Living outside of Boston, I saw some of the damage first hand. Weathering out the storm in the protection of my house hundreds of miles away from the center of the storm, I could only imagine the damage it was inflicting further south. I lost power early on in the storm, so only after I arrived at the summit this morning could I see pictures

Say It Isn't Tuesday! 2012-10-30 23:35:46.000 - Joe Kayan,  Summit Volunteer Gulfside Trail Today (Tuesday) has inevitably arrived (and nearly past). It's the last day before the summit staff shift change. This is the fifth time in the past four years that I have experienced this bittersweet day as a summit volunteer. I, along with my observer housemates for the week, leave for lower elevations tomorrow; off the summit of this sublime, ferocious, otherworldly place that the top of Mount Washington is to me. That's the bitter.Going home to my lovely wife, family and friends, to my job; back to

An Anomalus Day on the Summit 2012-10-29 16:27:59.000 - Stephen Lanciani,  Summit Intern Snow stakes along the Auto Road With all the talk of winter coming, conditions worsening, and more recently of Hurricane Sandy, I want to take a break for a minute to talk about something different...a near-perfect day that we had on the summit this shift! On Friday, October 26th we set a new record daily high temperature of 55 degrees, breaking the previous record of 52 degrees set in 1971. Yes, this was nice, but the fact that the sun was shining bright and winds were almost

Should I Go Hiking? 2012-10-28 19:21:00.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Clouds from Sandy provided a colorful sunrise. Should I go hiking the Monday or Tuesday? That is a question we have been asked and you might be asking yourself. So here is my long and short response. The long response is this: A storm is coming up the eastern seaboard. Now, you may have heard it called Hurricane Sandy, a post-tropical low, a Nor'easter, Frankenstorm, the Perfect Storm -Part Deux, or one of many other names. Regardless of what you want to call it, the bottom line is a

We Need to Talk About Sandy 2012-10-27 17:57:13.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Sandy et al from space earlier today. Reading through various status updates, comments, tweets, etc. about the upcoming storm, it seems that people are becoming more and more polarized in their opinions about what to do and what will be happening. Some are either over preparing like it is the end of times or they are taking the opposite approach and ignoring it all together because they feel it is being overhyped. But, I feel you shouldn't be doing either of these, you just need to find

Another busy and exciting day on the rock pile 2012-10-26 19:49:35.000 - Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist A view of the insides of the Hays Chart This morning started out with my normal routine of Observations and Daily Check where we take a second look at yesterday's Observations to make sure everything that was input to the station records makes logical sense and there were no keying errors. As we've beefed up our Input Validation over the past few months the number of minor errors that slip by and need to be corrected has dropped to nearly zero.The next task

Don't Take Technology for Granted 2012-10-25 17:35:24.000 - Stephen Lanciani,  Summit Intern Finally, we have power again! State Park has been replacing a major electrical sub-system, which required them to place necessities (weather instruments and the like) on temporary power and cut the juice to the rest of the Sherman Adams Building. For almost 48 hours we have been living with no heat, no light, and only non-perishable food. Thankfully, winds have been nearly calm, conditions have remained dry, and temperatures have risen above normal, allowing to the building to retain at least some heat. It should be noted however