Volunteer Comment 2010-09-15 17:06:11.000 - Sharon Camp & Sandy Fisher,  Summit Volunteers We had a delayed arrival on Wednesday evening due to the Auto Road being closed for the day for the filming of the record breaking Rally Car drive up the 7.6 mile Auto Road in 6 minutes, 20.47 seconds. Ken drove us up for our second year of volunteering as cooks for the Obs crew. We arrived in clouds/fog with the road invisible. We had to have faith in Ken with his experience of 4000 plus drives up the mountain as he told us, "OK, there is a

NULL 2010-09-14 16:33:31.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Today is September 14th. Tomorrow will be September the 15th and it is supposed to be partly sunny, 65 degrees with a light breeze in the valley. On top, it's going to be close to freezing, foggy, with winds gusting towards hurricane force. The middle of September is notorious for hypothermia cases because the absurdly pleasant valley weather is not indicative of the weather on the higher summits.155 years ago, a family of three hikers made a few fatal mistakes, resulting in the untimely death of Lizzie Bourne, a young

NULL 2010-09-13 08:23:41.000 - Jennifer Finn,  Summit Intern Flag hoisting on the tower As Mike mentioned yesterday, we had a gorgeous day on Saturday. Stacey and I went out early to get the observation, and I was more than thrilled to see the Atlantic Ocean! I have always been drawn to the sea, and being able to see it from a place I never thought I could was pretty amazing. It could not have been a more perfect evening for the Sunset Soiree. Compared to the day before, winds were much calmer and nearly non-existent as visitors began to gather

Sunset Soiree 2010-09-12 02:59:50.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Soiree-ing on the Summit! As our shift drove up the Auto Road on Tuesday evening for our special early shift change, the summit was in the clear and the sun was setting off to the west. As twilight faded and the stars came into focus in the moonless sky, the faint flicker of lightning from distant thunderstorms created an impressive show for the early part of the night. As the showers and storms approached the summit, fog engulfed our mountaintop location. Little did we know that the fog would not let

NULL 2010-09-10 11:55:22.000 - Cara Rudio,  Marketing and Communications Coordinator NULL Remember on Wednesday when Steve mentioned that the Auto Road was closed? We weren't at liberty to divulge at the time, but can now happily share the news: In preparation for the return of their popular 'Climb to the Clouds' auto race next year, the Mt. Washington Auto Road was hosting a visit from famous rally car driver Travis Pastrana. After just two test drives up the 7.6-mile road, which has an average grade of 11.6 percent, Pastrana set a jaw-dropping new course record of 6 minutes, 20.47 seconds!If

NULL 2010-09-09 15:34:54.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist fog There's that saying, 'If you don't like the weather in New England, wait five minutes'. However, waiting five minutes outside today would leave you soaked to bone, shivering and fairly unhappy. The weather has barely changed since the wee hours of this morning. By barely, I mean that thick, wet fog turned to thick, wet fog, with rain, then no rain, then drizzle. It is one of those days that we reserve the right to call gross. Because our job is the weather, we're not able to conveniently ignore the

Tuesday evening shift change 2010-09-08 16:23:15.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer NULL Since starting at the observatory, nearly three years ago now, Wednesdays have been a day for change. Either it was time to head up the mountain or the shift was up and in was time to head back down to the low lands. I can only remember four times when this tradition has been broken - the first was back in 2008 when Christmas Eve fell on a Wednesday so the shift change was performed a day early, the second was due to a mechanical problem with the

NULL 2010-09-08 00:15:00.000 - Harriet and Priscilla,  Summit Volunteers We're back!!!!!Cooking for the crew this year was like discovering our free, creative inner selves. We have evolved, in our third year, from "Thelma and Louise" to "Julia and Julie" to, this year, "Frik and Frak"----which included a number of flops---but these kids eat ANYTHING!! "Snow Pudding" became "Rime Ice" and "Ginger Cookies" became--Voila--"Flat Rocks." A new MWOB was created---"Rime on the Rocks"--served with a yummy Custard Sauce. Other efforts included an excellent "Carrot Cake" which took more time to research than to bake and an attempt at "Challah Bread" became

Summer Heat? 2010-09-06 22:25:38.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Does our summers heat stack up like these clouds? In June, I predicted to my coworkers that this summer would break our stations all time high temperature of 72F. It seemed realistic at the time. Long term models showed several high temperatures that had us in the 70s. But as the days progressed and those once distant temperatures moved closer and closer, the maximum temperatures would slowly nudge back down to below the 70 degree bar. June passed, and nothing. July passed, and nothing. And then August passed, normally our warmest

Shoulder Seasons 2010-09-05 20:15:54.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer For being 35F, foggy, and with the occasional rain shower, there sure were a lot of people up on the summit today. They came in all manners, up the Cog, the Auto Road, or hiking. I believe it was the hikers that looked the coldest for when it is just above freezing and raining, there isn't much one can do to stay warm. It is also days like today when rocks are slippery and it takes surprisingly little for an injury to come along. Put these two elements together and it