Bad Weather Shift? 2010-04-20 05:19:21.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Not done yet... It seems our fortunes as the good weather shift are taking a turn for the worse!Here are some facts to support that claim:Since this past Friday, April 16th, we have recorded only 10 sunshine minutes (out of a possible 3,307).We picked up 15.2" of new snow in three days (April 16 - 18).Rime ice began to form just after midnight on April 16, and has not ceased yet!We have reported freezing fog for 77 consecutive hours (as of 6 a.m. this morning)!As a result of this persistent

NULL 2010-04-18 18:00:36.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL The Weather Channel didn't ignite my obsession with weather (that was Twister, as many of you readers know), but it sure helped it grow. Being able to tune into weather at any time was definitely a novelty of which I took great advantage. The 'Local on the 8's' was convenient and whenever there was a hurricane or severe weather not where I was, it sated my appetite. The Weather Channel was part of my daily routine. In 2006 at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, in Atlanta, I was lucky

Inferno 2010-04-17 13:40:05.000 - Drew Hill,  Summit Intern The Inferno. That's sort of an ironic name, eah? Temperatures up here haven't hit above freezing since April 9th. In fact, we've been getting ''pounded'' with snow since yesterday morning. I suppose this hellish race may have been named more for Dante's masterpiece, though… that's an interesting thought.If you'll kindly allow me to take you back to your college days of studying 14th century draconian literature, I think I'll write a bit to this. So, according to Dante, hell is made up of 9 circles-- each one more awful than the last.

Skeleton 2010-04-16 22:36:48.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Valley, ho! Sometimes, after pondering the meaning of life, I sit and wonder what the origins of the phrase 'skeleton crew' consist of (well, that might be a tad melodramatic).In any case, that question will remain a shrouded mystery to me, as I did not do the usual bit of research I normally would before writing a comment such as this one. The reason for this lies within my question.A skeleton crew is exactly what is present on the summit this week. Our fearless leader Steve has taken his leave of us

NULL 2010-04-15 04:58:35.000 - Peter Fisk,  Summit Volunteer NULL Be careful what you ask for. About two weeks ago I told Volunteer Coordinator, Karen Hemeon, that as I am retired, my schedule was pretty flexible so if she got desperate for a volunteer, 'give a call.'Desperation had happened as within about three hours I got an e-mail asking, 'What are you doing next week?.''Uh, nothing I guess' replied I.So here I am 6 1/2 days into my first volunteer shift enjoying the solitude and beauty of Mount Washington in winter/spring. Well, O.K. the first 5 days were virtually 0/0, so

Rule of Threes 2010-04-13 20:59:55.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer I heard an interesting rule today, "The Rule of Threes". The rule applies to IT related efforts and goes as follows. When something new is to be implemented, it will take three times as long as initially planned, cost three times as much, and when is all said and done, it will accomplish one-third of the tasks. This seemed very relevant (unfortunately) to the tasks I was working on this weekend. We are trying to move our sunrise and sunset time-lapse videos from a .mpg format to a .mp4 format

Big Wind Day 2010-04-12 23:23:02.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Nothing to do w/ the comment - just neat looking. I awoke this afternoon with a single email in my work inbox that read "Happy..." from Michelle Cruz. Curious I opened it and in the body, I read "...Big Wind Day." On April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory measured a wind gust of 231 mph or as it has been dubbed "The Big Wind", a speed that created a new world record that stood for several years. For the past few years I have worked here, April 12th was

Seasons 2010-04-11 17:09:58.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist The return of some white out of the office window Winter is back! The funny thing is that I shouldn't have to say that thistime of year because winter isn't really over on the mountain yet. Theproblem is that it's been so incredibly warm lately that it has felt likewinter was over. Consider that our average daily temperatures for theearly part of April are in the low 20's while temperatures over the lastcouple weeks have been running, at times, 20-30 degrees above thataverage!As much as I love winter, I really do

100 days 2010-04-10 18:41:59.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Marty researching. What have you found for me? If you follow the Julian calendar, then you know that April 10, 2010 marks the 100th day of this year. Not a huge deal for me or the summit by any means. But I thought it might be interesting to look back over the first 100 days of 2010 and see how we are doing similar to how the press looks at the first 100 days of a new president to see how they are doing. To those unfamiliar with what I am

More Tent Testing... 2010-04-09 21:06:08.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer It won't be long now before I settle down with the sound of a freight train roaring all around me. Yup, it's time to go outside and test two more tents, which we set up today. Winds are looking to climb to the 50-70 mph range tonight with high gusts possible. Last week when we tested them, the guy points did not stay very tight, causing zippers to fail and ultimately the tent. This time around we are not using snow stakes, mainly because there is no longer any snow