Sick Sick Mountain 2010-03-23 22:33:38.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Patient Name: "Mount Washington"Gazing at this mountain on a sunny summer day, you wouldn't think this mountain was different than any other mountain. Sure, it's the tallest in its range, but it's not all that tall. Surrounding peaks always seem to "stand in awe of its grandeur" (they are shorter), and any passerby has described the mountain as "completely normal" (they say "that looks like an easy climb").Long ago, some brave souls had the idea to venture to the top of this mountain to take a gander at one of

Spring has sprung 2010-03-22 13:55:27.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Spring has arrived! In the valley spring heralds the return of flowers and singing birds. Their melodious twittering and chirping makes for a pleasant change to the peace and quiet of winter (it's certainly a lot nicer that the screeching racket (singing?) currently being made by a certain observer in the other room - anyhoo I digress). In the observatory spring marks the return of milder weather and subsequent thaw - the only sounds are of water dripping down the tower as the ice in the cold room melts. Don't

Cut Offs 2010-03-21 04:37:47.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Lonely Low Left Listless During my nightly forecasting ritual during the wee hours of Saturday morning, I was sifting through some prognostic forecast maps, and subsequently gasped in horror. The reason? It appeared a phenomenon known as a 'cut-off' low pressure system would plague the eastern half of the U.S. for the next week. Thus the inspiration for this comment was born--cut-off lows, which are the bane of any forecaster's existence.According to the American Meteorological Society, a cut-off low is defined as 'a cold low that has grown out of a

You Call Those Mountains?! 2010-03-19 11:48:15.000 - Drew Hill,  Summit Intern I Love New Hampshire (and also NY) I took a little jaunt over to the west coast this past weekend, visiting some friends and seeing the sights in Seattle. The Pacific Ocean? Awesome. Space Needle? Pointy. Public transportation... what is that? It was a fantastic visit, to say the least. Now, I'm not sure if it's their proximity to Canada or a gentleness that comes after spending 226 days a year draped in a dreary overcast, but Pacific Northwesterners are amazingly friendly. I often found myself discussing "the best

NULL 2010-03-18 15:03:52.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist As I was driving to work yesterday morning, through Danville on Rt. 2 on a particularly elevated portion of the road, I not-so-quietly cursed at myself. Rather, I cursed my forgetfulness. I forgot my camera this week. Back in Montpelier, I realized my folly, but turning back would have added at least an hour to my trip and was not an option. By the time I was riding through Danville, I smacked the steering wheel a bit harder than it deserved, out of pure frustration. Since I don't have a picture

Ed and his planes 2010-03-17 16:31:19.000 - Ed O'Malley,  Summit Volunteer An Observer Hard At Work I've always been interested in history of all types, and in particular, aviation - planes, helicopters, and everything in between. When I was little (early 80s), I wrote a short poem about planes: Planes, planes, in the skyLeaving a trail as they go bySometime fat, sometimes thinNobody knows what's withinOff they go, without a traceMaybe to land in a very strange placeDuring my six weeks on the summit as a volunteer, and two summer visits, I've seen very little in the sky, other than

I love shoveling! 2010-03-16 21:43:49.000 - John Bauhs,  Summit Volunteer Shoveling the tower today. I love snow. I love to watch it fall and I love to shovel it. I especially love snow because I know I will have to shovel it. The more it snows, the more I have to shovel...it's a happy parallel. Growing up in Wisconsin, my dad let me do all the shoveling. As a young boy, before I was allowed to use the gas mower in the summer, snow shoveling was a 'big boy' thing to do...it made me feel proud to help my family

Dealing with a big drift 2010-03-15 22:46:56.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Here is my very scientific meteorological evaluation of the weather pattern on Mount Washington for the last several weeks:Sunny, sunny, sunny, STORM, sunny, sunny, sunny, STORMThe 'storm' part of that pattern has fallen on my shift for a while now. In fact, the latest storm just began to move out of the region this morning. Starting early Sunday morning and ending late this morning, we received over 17 inches of snow, all on moderate to strong east winds. Now last shift I wrote a lot about how

The 14th. 2010-03-14 22:15:44.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist 13 nails balanced on 1. March 14th has a few things going for it. If you live in the northeast, you are either cleaning up or experiencing a fairly strong Nor'easter that is moving up along the coast from the Mid-Atlantic. This storm brought a large bought of rain to everyone except for the elevations above 3000 feet. The deluge of rain meant flooding for some or the lost of snow packs for others. And along with the torrential rains, high winds brought downed trees damaging cars, houses or anything else

What Time is It? 2010-03-13 17:05:40.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer NULL With any luck, life here as the IT observer will be much the same tomorrow as it has been today; I will make progress on the programs I am working on, the programs that have been written will continue to work, and the servers will run with a constant hum, not punctuated by a reboot. I'm not sure this will be the case though, as tomorrow comes the scary time when the valley switches to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and the summit remains on Eastern Standard Time (EST).