Back to work! 2010-04-08 22:16:00.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL It was nice to come back to the summit yesterday to begin a shift for the first time in three weeks. I ended up taking a partially unplanned vacation during the first part of what was supposed to be my previous shift. As you may remember, the actual shift change was delayed two weeks ago due to poor weather. I was only planning on being on the mountain that Wednesday through Saturday, and with the delay in shift change and uncertainty surrounding transportation through Saturday, I decided to

NULL 2010-04-07 05:54:39.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Former Intern and Summit Volunteer NULL When my mom and I signed up for a volunteer week at the beginning of April, we expected to catch plenty of winter weather. After all, the famous gust of 231 mph was recorded in April and the normal temperature for this week is a mere 19 degrees. If you have read any of the comments in the past few days, you already know that our expectations did not pan out.Our shift began normally, with fog and temperatures right around freezing. Starting Thursday morning, however, it felt like

NULL 2010-04-05 12:28:28.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist Where'd all the snow go? The Good-Weather shift strikes again!It might be getting old, but it is undeniable at this point. The other guys (also known as Ryan, Brian, and Mike) tested tents in 60-80 mph winds, freezing rain, and just plain gross weather. They tested stoves in sub-zero temperatures. Exactly one week later, we're not merely breaking, but blasting, shattering, exploding record high temperatures! And seriously, precipitation. What precipitation?Even though it is considerably cooler today than it was on Saturday (about 20 degrees cooler) it is still about 10 degrees

Summer is here 2010-04-03 11:26:27.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Crowds Summer is here!So far today we haven't been below 45 degrees Fahrenheit, which, for the time of year is really something. Consider that our previous record high temperature for the 3rd of April was 42 degrees set back in 1981. Couple the balmy temperatures with very light winds and strong sunshine and it's almost beach weather out there.Needless to say all this unusual fine weather has brought the crowds out in force. Doing the weather observations this morning felt very strange indeed - not only could I go out

Heat Wave 2010-04-02 04:58:34.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist No volcanoes, but a fiery sky indeed By now, I sincerely hope you, avid and loyal observer comment reader, have come to the realization that Mt. Adams is, indeed, not spewing lava down its slopes into the Great Gulf and onto the surrounding Northern Presidentials. No portion of yesterday's comment was in any way true. We really need to keep a more watchful eye on those capricious interns...they seem to get outlandishly creative around April 1st. Drew's choice of folly is not without a tad of irony, however, as the exceptionally

Magma Floes 2010-04-01 07:35:48.000 - Drew Hill,  Summit Intern Never before seen: volcanic activity in the Whites This morning, we woke with a start. I, for one, thought the rumbling was just some ice crashing onto the roof of our sleeping quarters from the tower. So, as any 20-something male would do, I went back to sleep. Or tried, at least.The rumbling didn't stop.Realizing something must be wrong (was the furnace malfunctioning?), I stumbled out of bed to find Mike-- the night observer-- to see just what was going on. To my surprise, everyone was up. Mike was barking orders

Vol report. 2010-03-31 05:57:38.000 - Sue Rose,  Summit Volunteer Summit during sunrise during my week. I've had an amazingly varied and astonishingly beautiful week as one of the volunteer cooks at the Mount Washington Observatory. Tonight, while listening to the drenching rain and winds lashing the Observatory, I've had a chance to think back to many of my experiences and the people and photos to go with them. My friend Dan Stone and I have been cooking for up to 16 people this week, as well as having the unique opportunity to experience and photograph life at the Observatory and

Nick's last 2010-03-30 13:58:54.000 - Nick Lovejoy,  Summit Intern The Summit Crew with Paul and Mr. Snowflake Today is sort of a sad day for me. This is because today is my last day of work up here on the summit. On Thursday 4/1 I will begin taking phlebotomy courses for a job I will be starting at the Faustman diabetes research lab at Mass General Hospital in Boston. Although I hear that drawing blood is truly an art and will be quite exciting, I'm sure that the required skill set will be quite different.I have had an amazing experience

Tent Testing on Mt. Washington 2010-03-29 21:09:43.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer As Ryan mentioned yesterday, we have some new additions to the observation deck. Depending upon when you looked, we may have had more or less additions to the deck. These additions were 4-season mountaineering tents from various companies that Backpacker Magazine has enlisted the Observatory to test and review. The crew set them up yesterday first inside the shelter of the building to become familiar with them, then moved outdoors to the relatively benign conditions as far as the summit is concerned. We set up three tents, with

False alarm 2010-03-28 18:18:49.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist A better alternative to watching TV/web surfing! It never ceases to amaze me how in just a few years, how connected and dependant on the internet we have all become. When I graduated from high school I didn't have an email, a facebook or myspace page, videos took hours to load, the "song" of the modem dialing up was embedded to memory, and research was done by visiting the local library. During the start of this decade when I got to college, I got an email, T1 lines on campus extinguished