NULL 2010-11-04 15:26:51.000 - Kristin Raisanen,  Summit Intern Marty completely enthralled during movie night As the summit museum supervisor, I was often asked what we do after our long 12 hour shifts. My answers always included board games, video games, Jeopardy! and of course last night's form of entertainment, movies. As last night's flick started, everyone claimed their seats and settled in for a few hours of excitement. As I was grabbing a snack, I saw that we had an extra staff member in our midst. Marty had decided to watch the movie with us. I quickly realized that all

Volunteer Comment 2010-11-03 15:13:46.000 - Katherine MacDonald,  Summit Volunteer Sunrise It sounds like a waterfall. It looks like a waterfall. As the clouds dance and dip into the Valleys, it's simply mesmerizing. It's one of the reasons I return to volunteer on Mount Washington time and again. I never get tired of the gifts this mountain gives me when I visit. It's always an experience. When I arrived last Wednesday, most of the previous snow storm had washed away from fog and rain. Thursday was amazingly beautiful. I took advantage and went for a stroll down to Lakes of the

From Fog to Beauty 2010-11-02 14:14:03.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Undercast Glory at Sunrise Finally...the sun has decided to show his face again! Although Thursday was a beautiful day, it has been since then that we have been in the fog. Nonetheless, I was still able to get out for a hike on Friday to try to re-repair the datalogger at Lakes. After a foggy, snowy, and slightly windy hike down, I set to troubleshooting the logger. I have a reasonable clue as to what might be wrong, but it will take another trip and some hardware from the

Looking back at October 2010-11-01 22:17:22.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Well, October is officially in the books, both figuratively and literally. Well, almost literally.Ryan is in the process of finishing up monthly check, which is a process that our meteorological observers go through after each month has passed to check forms for errors and compile various averages and other data from the previous month. As I'm sure you can imagine, there are a lot statistics I could throw at you right now, but instead I'd like to just highlight the two that I find most interesting and

Halloween 2010-10-31 18:15:59.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Trick or Treat? Happy Halloween!At this moment, people are getting dressed up for trick or treating or various parties they have planned. Porch lights are coming on and bowls of candy are being prepared to hand out. And in no time, several ghouls, ghosts, goblins, etc will be roaming the streets. On the summit however, we are celebrating in different ways. We'll carve up our pumpkins. We'll leave the porch light on (just in case of a hiker emergency). We'll prepare a bowl of candy to consume ourselves. And in no time,

Fog 2010-10-30 20:28:38.000 - Erica Sandschulte,  Summit Intern Rime ice formed by frozen fog It's white. It has a relative humidity near 100%. It can reduce visibility to zero. Take one guess...Fog. It is briefed about in comments quite often because it is a common weather phenomenon in winter up here. In fact, the summit stays in the fog over 60% in an entire year. Fog is made up of tiny droplets of water that are so small that it would take millions of them to make a single tablespoonful of water! Or if you take piece of string, cut

Dealing with transition seasons 2010-10-29 21:38:14.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL The transition seasons, by nature, are very volatile. One day can see one extreme, while a few days later sees the opposite extreme. This is the case more so here on Mount Washington than anywhere I have ever been. Then again, this shouldn't surprise the vast majority of you reading this.The last two weeks proveide a great example. Exactly two weeks ago, my shift was experiencing the first significant snowfall of the new winter season. By the time we headed down last Wednesday, October 20, snow was

Hiking for Work 2010-10-28 22:09:25.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Hiking for Work! One of my favorite parts of this job is the fact at times I get to hike in some of the most beautiful places in the northeast. Today was one of those days and was made even more so by the fact that it looks as though we will be in the fog for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love looking at clouds. It's just that I like looking at them from a slight distance. As a general rule, they are more impressive on the

Volunteer comment 2010-10-27 22:05:18.000 - Lyle Cunningham and Dianne Pointer,  Summit Volunteers Living in the flatlands of Illinois, the experience of coming to work on top of a 6,288 foot mountain is quite a change for us. Driving to the mountain from Portsmouth was spectacular; the trees were bursting with color.We met the observers and interns at the base and loaded the van for the trek up the mountain. We started up the winding road with the trees still colorful. As we progressed the trees started to lose their color and eventually we ran out of trees and started to

NULL 2010-10-26 23:26:02.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist The Massive Cyclone Meteorologists are known for getting excited over strange occurrences--thunderstorms, high winds, heavy snow, etc. Today is no exception. The entire meteorological community, in addition to residents of the entire eastern half of the continental US, have turned their eyes towards a mid-latitude cyclone currently barreling its way northeastward through the center of the country.At the time this comment is being written, approx. midnight EDT, the massive low pressure system is positioned over northern Minnesota. However, its effects are hardly limited to its center, as its influence is being felt