A Winter Surprise for Summer Summit Visitors 2011-06-03 18:05:00.000 - Rick Giard,  Educational Observer Winter Greets Summer Summit Visitors Yesterday winter suddenly returned to the summit with subfreezing temperatures, thick glaze icing and gusty winds. At 9:34 last night we recorded a peak gust of 101 MPH - equivalent to a category two hurricane! Anywhere else this wind would be a big news story, yet here it is routine. Hurricane-force winds (74+) are seen in every month of the year and on nearly 40% of days. From October to May they occur on one out of every two days, and

More Crap 2011-06-02 16:16:41.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer June? What a change from yesterday! Twenty four hours ago we were sweltering in the mid 50s and able to walk around comfortably outside in just T-shirt and shorts. Well not today.Late this morning we fell below the freezing mark and with winds sustained around 70 mph it is no longer T-shirt weather out there. Glaze ice is also forming now and we've even had snow and ice pellets - in fact it's starting to look like winter again. Is it really June?   Steve Welsh,  IT Observer

June 1st 2011-06-01 22:25:44.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Berlin under seige June certainly managed to start with bang. It appeared in advance, even as early as a few days ago, that today's conditions would be prime for lots of convective activity--violent showers, and thunderstorms dropping hail, producing high winds, and even a few scant whispers of a tornado leaving the lips of local meteorologists.The day did not disappoint.On my ride over from Burlington, VT this morning, I noticed that the 5 a.m. sky was exhibiting activity much more indicative of 5 p.m. As it turns out, intense thunderstorms were

Stephen Rosenman 5-31-11 2011-05-31 16:07:15.000 - Stephen Rosenman,  Summit Intern Sunset behind the Northern Presidentials As a hiker who considers the Whites home away from home, it is pretty awesome to be able to call Mount Washington my new home for the summer. Living up here offers so much more than one can experience solely as a day hiker. In my first week, I have witnessed several beautiful sunsets, a full undercast to the east, and the most vibrant stars I have ever seen. So, for those of you who are members and have not done so yet, I would

First Comment 2011-05-30 17:10:24.000 - Jaclyn Ritzman,  Summit Intern There is something unique about being in the clouds and I must admit, unlike others, I am a huge fan of being in the clouds. Not only have we spent time in the clouds, thunderstorms have been a frequent occurrence in the afternoon/evening hours, which brought a bit of excitement to the summit. I have had the privilege of going storm chasing before but it is quite different watching a thunderstorm cross over the mountains from 6,288ft verses the Great Plains. This past week I have been familiarizing myself with the

The other photo journal 2011-05-29 23:45:47.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist One for my archive: Lenticulars this afternoon. If you know me, then you know I like to take pictures. But I don't consider myself a photographer nor am I one of those people that always have a camera glued to my face and live my life behind the lens shooting everything I see. Instead, I consider myself the world's luckiest amateur photographer who works and lives at the right place at the right time. And to ensure I capture those right place/right time moments, I always have my camera

Our scene yesterday 2011-05-28 16:17:50.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist This is what I mean by "beautifully ominous". Ominous: Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening; inauspicious.Beautiful: Delighting the senses of exciting intellectual or emotional admiration.Beautifully Ominous: Delighting the senses while giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen.Alright, so that last definition isn't technically in the dictionary but it was what came to mind yesterday afternoon. Like Brian mentioned in yesterday's comment, my forecast of being in the fog was incorrect as the cloud layer lifted a few hundred

An Amazing Mountain 2011-05-27 17:17:34.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Still some snow left out there There are certain things about this mountain that never cease to amaze me, and I was reminded of several of those things today.First, there's the unpredictability of the weather. Now, I think that Ryan, Mike Carmon, and the rest of us that forecast for the mountain's weather do a great job. A few years back, a couple of our interns completed projects that looked at the accuracy of various aspects of our Higher Summits Outlook. The results showed that our forecasts were roughly

Lighning 2011-05-26 21:10:54.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer NULL After a nice sunset last night, we are now in the clouds and look to remain so for the foreseeable future. The snow is all but gone here on the summit, with only small patches remaining in the East Snowfields, or at least that is all we could see with the 50 foot visibility when we went for a short walk to investigate this afternoon. Looking at the radar, the thunderstorms that have been sitting over Vermont are nearly here and the fog is pulsating as distant lightning illuminates it. It

NULL 2011-05-25 07:28:44.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist the prettiest picture I took all week. Warning:A long and sappy comment follows. Be prepared.3 years and 10 months = 2 summit cats (Nin and Marty), 2 snow tractors (yellow and white), 2 pitot tubes (3 if you count the back-up pitot), many shift partners (Brian and Ryan, then Kyle and Zach, then Kyle and Mike, then Steve and Mike, then a Mike swap) countless volunteers, 33 interns (that includes both shifts but not Plymouth State interns), and 6 museum attendants. Time isn't only measured in minutes and seconds, it apparently