Marty 2010-08-01 23:14:33.000 - Marty,  Summit Cat It's a hard life A thousand meows and a few hellos from my mountaintop domain! Marty here, back from a bit of a hiatus to give you all of the important thoughts from my kitteh brain. I know Mike usually claims he helps with the translation, but he takes far too much credit.The usually quiet summit has been all hustle-and-bustle recently! It got warmer, and then the people came. It was a trickle at first, like the slow leak of a drippy faucet that could entertain me for hours. Then, someone turned the

NULL 2010-07-31 21:27:56.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Warning - this is a long, somewhat sappy, comment. At 17:05 EST, our interns barged into the weather room, in a maelstrom of giggles. They had just returned from Clay, flush with the effort of hiking and completely rejuvenated. I have to say, I was just a teensy bit jealous. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking today, with cool temperatures, a little bit of sunshine (that's good for people who are sensitive to the sun), and almost nonexistent wind. I don't want to talk about their hike, but I

NULL 2010-07-30 16:45:54.000 - Kristin Raisanen,  Summit Intern Visitors braving the cold It's been a fairly warm July up here on the summit. There have been 23 days since the beginning of July that were above normal. All the warm weather for the past month has made our recent shift to cooler temperatures a bit more surprising and more difficult to adjust to. A cold front passed through our region yesterday, bringing with it cooler temperatures and stronger winds. Since the passage of the front, our temperatures have dropped into the 30's and lower 40's. This is definitely not cold,

NULL 2010-07-29 18:14:57.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL I somehow managed to miss the muddle of meetings yesterday, and arrived at a (surprise) foggy summit this morning. After the heat of the valley (it got over 90 degrees in Burlington yesterday, that's HOT) the temperature of 50 degrees was blissful relief. Temperature continued to fall and the clouds did eventually lift for a couple of hours, providing the perfect opportunity to use the sling psychrometer. As I cheerfully shivered on the windy, chilly deck, my nose caught a whiff of a familiar odor. It smelled like fall. By

NULL 2010-07-28 22:32:43.000 - Dennis Vienneau,  Summit Volunteer Tuesday Night Sunset As I write this notation, I'm packed and ready to head down the mountain. It's hard to believe that another week on the summit has passed so quickly. Normally there are two volunteers, as part of the crew, to share the cooking of the evening meal, general housekeeping duties, and any other small project(s) that might come up but this week the other volunteer needed to cancel out at the last minute with a family emergency. Initially the task at hand seemed daunting with Seek-the-Peak cookies to bake and

Thermo-shack Fabrication 2010-07-27 20:49:51.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Summit Intern Welding the base June 15th I spoke about the "new" thermo-shack that I was restoring to replace the current one in use at the observatory. When I last spoke about the progress, Wayne Peterson, one of our snow tractor operators was going to be giving me a refresher on welding so a new housing could be made. Well with the refresher behind me I have been constructing the new one and I must say welding is awesome. I am a fan of power tools in general but this is so much

Crazy week 2010-07-26 18:18:12.000 - Hanna Brewer,  Summit Intern Low clouds nestled around Mt. Clay Oh my goodness... What an exhausting week! And it's not even over yet!! Between visitors and Seek the Peak there has been no rest for the weary here on Mt. Washington. Thursday kicked off our shift with an overnight Summit Adventure Trip (which means sharing our living quarters with seven extra guests), Friday involved a lot of preparing for Seek the Peak plus giving tours to the first hikers of the event, Saturday was of course Seek the Peak itself (meaning constant tours of the

STP Wedding? 2010-07-25 18:56:10.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Reception for STP '10. Saturday was a very busy day for the summit and valley staff of the Mount Washington Observatory as we held the 10th annual Seek the Peak fundraiser. This year it was our biggest event yet and to me, the best one we have had since I started working here. While I wasn't involved as I had been in the past three years due to being on the summit for a change, the small portion I was involved in went smoothly and kept me on my toes. The

Go time! 2010-07-23 10:13:51.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Seak the Peak 10, the biggest event in the history of the Observatory, is officially here! Executive Director Scot Henley, other valley staff, and a host of volunteers are at Cranmore setting up for tonight's kick-off concert with national recording artist Assembly of Dust. Other valley staff are at the Weather Discovery Center preparing for registration, which begins at noon today, and for the kick-off party before the concert this evening. Here on the summit, our volunteer Dennis is busy in the kitchen preparing cookies for all the hikers tomorrow

STP!! 2010-07-22 15:32:57.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Yesterday was an eventful day. Not only was it the usual shift change day, which is always busy, but it was a busy weather day as well. For the first time this summer, my shift got to experience some 'real' severe weather. As the day progressed into the early afternoon, some severe cells started to pop up, and a couple grazed us. Then a huge line of intense storms headed our way from Vermont, and there was no missing them this time. Winds increased and shifted drastically in a short period