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

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