An historic day 2011-01-08 16:48:48.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Al and Marion Lake, and the Grilled Elvis Today was a bit of an historic day on the mountain, for several reasons. For starters, this shift marks 5 years since I spent my first shift on the mountain as an intern. Focusing more on today, it's Elvis Presley's birthday (he would have been 76 today). That only comes around once a year, right? In honor of the King, long-time volunteer extraordinaire Al Lake made Grilled Elvis sandwiches, just like he has every time I have been on the mountain

Before and After 2011-01-07 17:21:38.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Before and After Coming back to the summit this week, it appears the summit did not get away from the quick, but effective, January thaw that struck the Northeast with a vengeance last week. Thursday was a beautiful day with temperatures warming to around freezing, blue bird skies, and snow hanging off the trees. My friend, Michelle, and I went climbing in Crawford Notch and for an hour or so wallowed through nearly 4 feet of snow to get to a climb. Unfortunately, it had been baking in the sun

On The Summit Again 2011-01-06 21:48:45.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Summit Intern This is not Florida, and I could not be happier! Arriving back on the summit after finishing my last semester of school is an incredible feeling. After this past summer as an intern I knew I needed to come back. Starting as one of the new winter interns I am extremely happy to resume working for the Observatory again. Yesterday's shift change brought me back as if I had not missed a shift. Yes, I made the trip to the summit in the snow tractor, the tower and observatory

Shift change reflections 2011-01-05 23:18:27.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Some Wednesday shift changes are mundane, easy, and very "by the book". Today was not exactly one of those shift change days. Most would assume that the weather played a role in making this shift change unusual and you would be partially correct. But the weather had nothing to do with the physical changing of the crews. We got up and the other crew down in average time on this foggy, windy and cold Wednesday. But the weather did play a role in other ways for the delirium that was

NULL 2011-01-04 18:05:26.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Warning: This comment is a lengthy, but interesting account of our recent wind measurement woes.Yesterday it was cold and windy. We knew it was windy because we could hear it and we could feel it. However, we cannot currently measure it. Last week, the main pitot tube anemometer kicked the bucket, bit the dust, went belly up, croaked. Though it had some problems, it did pretty well for nearly ten years. On Thursday and Friday, Steve spent most of his time trying to heat the back-up Pitot tube. Thursday evening,

NULL 2011-01-03 12:25:47.000 - Scot Henley,  Executive Director The arrival of 2011 has brought with it a very important and exciting change here at the Observatory. I'm proud to announce that Eastern Mountain Sports has become Mount Washington Observatory's new "official outfitter." In this new multi-year partnership, Eastern Mountain Sports is now the exclusive provider of outdoor gear to the Observatory. We are very fortunate to have previously enjoyed an eight-year relationship with L.L.Bean, and we thank our friends over in Freeport, Maine for their support through the years. Early last year, as it became apparent that 2010 would be

Warm 2011-01-02 15:44:54.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist The Fog Cleared! Today is January 2nd, but it feels more like April 2nd.Yesterday, we here at the summit experienced the warmest New Year's Day temperatures since 1945. The previous record high was 40 degrees, and we managed to top out at a sweltering 42 degrees just after 10 p.m. last night. As a result, our snowpack that was estimated at about 20 inches on the morning of New Year's Eve has since dwindled to about 5 inches by this morning, revealing our bare deck, lots of icy rocks, and even sedge!I

New Year 2011-01-01 08:19:45.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer NULL Happy New Year!Just a very quick comment to update everyone with the latest happenings from the summit. Firstly our radio link to the valley is back after we finally managed to dislodge the glaze ice from our microwave dish. Yesterday we also installed our backup Pitot complete with a heated tube, heat tapes and insulation. So far it is performing well and matching our RM Young anemometer - we are all crossing our fingers and hoping that it carries on working when the temperature falls below the freezing mark sometime

NULL 2010-12-30 17:14:29.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist hazy valley Finally, it's not Sunday and we have Sun! Having spent my holiday in Ohio, I missed the whopper of a storm that hit my home state (NJ) and apparently, the entire New England coast. I may have obsessively watched The Weather Channel for hours on Sunday night and Monday morning. That storm system moved out and allowed for fairly favorable shift change weather. Oftentimes after a big storm, temperatures will plunge into chilling depths. This happens when high pressure advances from Canada, pulling cold, continental air down from the

Volunteer Comments 2010-12-29 22:24:50.000 - John & Susan Van Slooten,  Summit Volunteers Observer Note: You may have noticed a lack of wind speed data on our home page and on our current summit conditions page. Due to the failure of our wind speed devices capable of withstanding icing conditions, the wind data we are currently collecting, when in freezing fog conditions, is erroneous. When we are in the clear and no icing is taking place we will publish wind speed data from a secondary working anemometer. In addition, as an FYI, much of the wind data that is recorded on