NULL 2011-03-15 14:01:21.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist The Bright White Summit Back from the dead.Alive and kickin'.Name your cliche...but whichever way you slice it, I'm back on the summit, if only for a very brief stint.As Stacey alluded to in yesterday's comments, I had a nasty scuffle with the flu, which fortunately commenced before my scheduled return trip to the summit, allowing me to carry out this battle in the comfort of my own home, rather than up here.I've had a lot of firsts in my life since working at the Obs, but the contraction of this nasty bug

NULL 2011-03-14 13:51:54.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist We really needed a picture! How do you tell if it is raining cats and dogs? If you go outside and step in the poodles! Mike Carmon returned to the summit today! That is certainly something to celebrate. Besides his boyish good looks and light and easy-going personality, his superior forecasting skills have been missed. I'm pretty sure Marty has noticed his absence as well. He's been giving me that 'What have you done with my favorite observer?' accusing glare again.Why hasn't Mr. Carmon been on the summit? Well, upon waking

NULL 2011-03-12 21:06:29.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Well, it seems that my mood has shifted with the winds. Even though its insanely foggy (40 ft visibility) and it's still fairly cold and windy, the west wind seems to have blown away all of yesterday's bitterness. However, in light of recent events, with the devastating earth quake and resulting tsunami in Japan, I'd much rather talk about how to help Japan than the weather. Everyone who has access to any kind of media knows about the incredible force nature unleashed upon Japan. An 8.9 magnitude earthquake releases 1.41

NULL 2011-03-11 16:08:40.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist The weather is gross and mean and it beat me up today. In addition to a disgusting mix of precipitation, incredible amounts of glaze ice, and (to say the least) difficult walking conditions on the deck and parapet, southeast winds also seem to bring whiny, petulant observers. It is currently drizzling and 32F. Now that sounds pretty harmless. Drizzle is dreary, but it usually doesn't make observers want to curl up in the fetal position and cry for their mothers. It's not the drizzle that has rendered us into the four

Icy night 2011-03-10 16:42:56.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer NULL Well it looks like we have another bout of mixed precipitation heading our way very soon followed by rain tomorrow. From past experience we may well lose the radio link to the valley for a while as that wonderful freezing rain and sleet causes glaze ice to build up on everything. Please be aware that if we do lose our link then the current weather conditions and Mesonet pages will fail to update until the radio link is re-established.So this is turning into an interesting shift from the get go.

vol com 2011-03-10 00:11:13.000 - Michael Lalancette,  Summit Volunteer NULL What a week at the top of New England. This was my first solo week and needless to say I was quite busy. A photography EduTrip early during our shift had banner weather which gave everyone a chance to get some great photos in their time here. I also had a great time getting to know the EduTrip participants in addition to the various hiking groups and guides. In addition to experiencing several great groups of people, I got to see some weather extremes as well. Winds reached over 100

We're Back 2011-03-08 08:41:52.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL As expected, the microwave radio link between the summit and our Weather Discovery Center in North Conway went down on Sunday morning as temperatures rose to the freezing mark. The warm temperatures coupled with glaze ice cause water to sit on the microwave dish, in turn refracting the beam enough to keep it from connecting to the valley. Among other things, this means no internet access for the summit, which then also means no current conditions, observer comments, etc. for the website.Despite temperatures plummeting on Monday afternoon, the link

Pizza 2011-03-05 13:15:46.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Summit Intern Last night Brian, Mike and I took the opportunity to make some pizza. We all started with the same Italian Herb Rustic Crusts but the end results were far from the same. Last week when Rustic Crust made the ultimate pizza delivery to the summit Brian was not there. Besides being able to see the video blog of the trip by Tom Guilmette, Brian had not tasted the wholesome goodness so we filled him in. I chose to make a tomato, basil, garlic and mozzarella pizza while Mike went in a completely

Music and Stars 2011-03-03 22:31:23.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Walking outside before heading to bed, it feels quite warm out now that it has warmed to around -1 F and winds have dropped. Looking at the ARVP we are actually warmer here on the summit than in the valley thanks to a nice inversion setting up. The temperature difference should increase over the coming hours as more cold air sinks to the valley with high pressure cresting. Looking skyward, it is nice and clear out and the stars are quite amazing. I don't think I could ever get tired

3 interesting things 2011-03-02 22:36:11.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Light on northern peaks from my last shift. Another Wednesday, another shift change. And it was a quick shift change to say the least. All the snow that had fallen and was falling was blowing about lowering visibilities and creating some tough drifts of snow to go through. Once up, we unloaded, did about 15 minutes of greetings and meetings then we parted ways. Such are winter shift changes up here. The ride up can take hours with only minutes on top or they can take about and hour with