More crap 2011-06-16 16:36:25.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Where are the cars? Today we saw no cars or trucks on the Auto Road! Even though it's been a nice summer day up here with calm winds (25 mph or so) and hot temperatures (low 50s) we saw no 4 wheeled vehicles. The reason? - well as part of the famous Laconia Bike Week the Mt. Washington Auto Road was only open to motorcycles today. As you can imagine we saw lots of bikes instead.This weekend will also feature several Auto Road events - the first off is the Mount

Shifts 2011-06-15 18:12:21.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Crepuscular Rays & Distant Showers The theme laced throughout this comment is going to be one of extreme swings in trends.I normally would not point out the underlying theme of a comment from the get go, but my act of doing so is directly in line with the theme--it is quite a shift from my normal way of doing things.During my time off this past week, I descended to the valley amidst some very hot and muggy conditions. By the time I arrived in New Jersey on Thursday, June 9th, the mercury

Shopping 2011-06-14 15:23:32.000 - Werner Griesshammer,  Summit Volunteer NULL A full week on the summit of Mount Washington!A while ago, we had applied to work as volunteers for the Mount Washington Observatory and an old dream has become true.Last Wednesday, my wife Conny and I were greeted by the summit with sunshine and almost record temperatures. But the next day the stone pile showed its real face: in and out of the clouds and low temperatures. Over the next days, dressed warmly, we managed to hike down to the Alpine Garden and enjoyed the flowers that dare to bloom at

Bike Week! 2011-06-13 21:44:55.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Summit Museum Attendant Living in Daytona Beach for the past few years I have experienced quite a few Bike weeks. This weekend was the start of the 2011 Laconia Bike week. Today was the first Ride to the Sky with the Mount Washington Auto Road where the road was only open to bikers. Despite the weather, the summit still saw its fair share visiting the summit. I found it very interesting to hear where they had all traveled from and what their plans were for the week. Some had even been to the

Second Comment 2011-06-12 15:21:19.000 - Jaclyn Ritzman,  Summit Intern Undercast and the Northern Presidential Mountains I have experienced many new things this week! We hiked down to the Alpine Garden last Wednesday, which was quite the excursion. Even though the bugs were bothersome, seeing the flowers made the hike well worth it. Not only was visiting the Alpine Garden a new experience, we woke up Saturday morning to the summit being under a cap cloud. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would be under a cap cloud. Once late morning hit, the northern side of the

SR 6/11/11 2011-06-11 16:25:48.000 - Stephen Rosenman,  Summit Intern Cold, Windy, and Rainy Summit While I will not say this very often, I think today has been a good day not to be out on the trails. Other than watching the large cap cloud pour over us into the Great Gulf early this morning (as Mike mentioned below), it has been pretty crummy hiking weather all day. The Summit has been in the clouds with minimal visibility, frequent rain showers, and temperatures hovering around the mid-30s. Walking around the Sherman Adams building and working down in the Observatory gift shop,

Alpine Flowers 2011-06-10 23:01:24.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Alpine Flowers As promised last night, here are a few more flower pictures from our hike the other day. Waking up this morning revealed another cool photo opportunity - a cap cloud. This particular cap cloud persisted for several hours, but as I write this, we are beginning to go into the fog, back to our normal view of grey. And now back to last night's comment... That long awaited window is finally here - the time when alpine flowers are in bloom. Yesterday I got out for a hike with

Escaping the Heat 2011-06-09 16:10:57.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL It was certainly nice to escape the heat in the valley yesterday by coming to the summit. I love the fact that a 'hot' day on Mount Washington sees temperatures in the 60's. That's my idea of a perfect summer day! Then there is the nice breeze to make it feel even a little bit cooler. I was also happy to get away from the bugs in the valley. This is my fifth summer living in New England, and this year is by far the worst I have

All Staff Meeting 2011-06-08 18:11:00.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist All Staff Photo, Summer '11 It doesn't happen very often but at least once a year the entire staff working for the Mount Washington Observatory comes together for an all staff meeting. There are a few reasons we have this meeting. The first is to introduce all the new full time and seasonal staff members to each other so we can put a face to a name and voice. In my time here, these meet and greets are sometimes littered with a few new faces while other times the new

A Good Week On Summit 2011-06-07 12:08:45.000 - Dan Fortier,  Summit Volunteer Alpine Flowers Blooming Near Clay My week as a volunteer on the summit started Wednesday June 1st with summer-like weather, and quickly changed to winter with temperatures below freezing packing wind gusts of 101.2 MPH. I was not expecting hurricane-force winds, freezing fog and rime ice. Then back to summer!Helping with the cooking and cleaning for the crew was a pleaser - they're a great bunch of guys and one gal. I had a lot of me time to hike, taking trips to the Lakes of the Clouds,