Sunset 2012-06-29 23:56:53.000 - Steve Welsh,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist Sunset For me a sunset usually signals the end of my work day, it's the time to relax and unwind, the time to forget about work for a few hours and take in the scenery and to just experience the weather without having to record it. This week, however, everything is back to front as I'm working nights to cover for Mike who'll be heading down the mountain in a couple of days for some well earned vacation time. I do really enjoy the opportunity to experience the mountain at night

Messy Summer Days 2012-06-28 14:18:21.000 - Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Foggy Summit Messy.That's the best way I can describe the first 24 hours or so of our shift week. Since we arrived yesterday morning, the fog on the summit has been thick, rain has been falling on and off, winds have been fairly breezy for summer, and temperatures have hovered in the lower 40s. I had a feeling that we would all be quite spoiled after our last shift week, where sun and calm winds were the headliners.However, this is Mt. Washington, and this is summertime typical: fog, fog, and

Summit Volunteers Comment 2012-06-26 16:26:21.000 - Christy Keefe and Kelley Brown,  Summit Volunteers Clearing and Undercast Yesterday Afternoon. Hi, I'm Christy and I'm finishing my third volunteer stint here at the summit. I come from Connecticut where I am a teacher. And I'm Kelley, the other volunteer for the week, I'm also a teacher who resides in Maine, and this is my first week. Together this week, we have discovered that this experience is far more than just cooking and cleaning for the Mount Washington Observatory staff here on the summit. It's been an opportunity to decompress from our everyday

The Fall Internship 2012-06-25 23:35:21.000 - Brian Clark,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL Summer just officially started a few days ago, so that means it's time to think about fall interns! Wait, that doesn't sound right, does it? Amazingly enough though it is, to a certain extent. Hiring our interns, which change along with the school year schedule, takes quite a bit of advanced planning. Because of that, we start to sort through applications well ahead of the actual start date of any particular season's interns. In this case, in just a few short weeks, we will start to look at

What Happened to the "garden" in the Alpine Garden 2012-06-24 23:33:07.000 - Adam Brainard,  Summit Intern Spring 2012 High Temperatures As many repeat visitors to the summit may have noticed, the garden (for which Alpine Garden trail is named) has been a bit less spectacular this year. No, the flora has not been victim to a rockslide, a fire, or death by a thousand flashbulbs (or worse, footsteps); but the decline can likely be attributed to weather. As seen in the graph attached, the summit experienced a significant March thaw that brought well above freezing temperatures for nearly two weeks.

Changeable Weather 2012-06-23 23:07:38.000 - Brian Clark,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist NULL As is often the case on Mount Washington, today's weather started very differently than it ended. When I started my shift just before 6 o'clock this morning, only mid and high level clouds covered the sky above us. It was only a few hours later though that convection around the mountain started in the form of a few random towering cumulus, and the by midday cumulus clouds were building up all around us. The rest of the day saw numerous showers, a brief period of small hail, and several

Auroras on the Summit 2012-06-22 19:35:16.000 - Christopher Gregg,  Summit Intern Auroras to the North of the summit Getting to spend my summer up on Mount Washington, there are a number of things I had expected (or rather hoped) to see over my internship. Snow in parts of the year that you normally don't expect, high winds, storms going right over the summit, extremely thick fog, rime ice, and spectacular scenery. Beyond that, I recently had the privilege of seeing something that didn't cross my mind up till part way into my experience on the summit, the Aurora Borealis. It's

Summer has 'officially' arrived on the Summit 2012-06-21 21:23:12.000 - Roger Pushor,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist NULL Schools out and summer is finally 'officially' here and the Tourist season on the Summit is in full swing. I took a few minutes to drop down to the Museum this morning and chat with Anthony for a bit. With the heavy fog this morning most of the guests had come up on the Cog.It's always interesting to chat with the guests especially to hear the reasons they make the trek to the Summit - For some it's to experience the high winds for

Quickie News That Mattered to Me Today 2012-06-20 23:49:30.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist Thunderstorm with our weather tower, sunset today. So, rather than focus on any one particular point in this comment, I will call it quickie news of five things that mattered to me today.1. It was the first day of summer. That also means that the days around this date are the longest days of the year with about 943 available sunshine minutes on the summit of Mount Washington. Working nights up here, I cherish these days because it allows me to actually get to see the

A Member's Comments 2012-06-19 23:10:18.000 - Charles G. Staples,  Mount Washington Observatory Member Mount Washington has always been a source of inspiration to me. I got my love of the mountains and hiking from my father Harold. He was a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club and Green Mountain Club. When I was 7, he signed me up for membership to the Observatory and I've been a member ever since. That was 75 years ago.I'm 82 now and have climbed Mount Washington about 60 times. That's just a guess. I haven't climbed it for about 12 or 13 years now.