Hiking to Mesonet Sites 2010-03-12 13:17:49.000 - Nick Lovejoy,  Summit Intern Halfway House on the Cog Railroad Yesterday I was asked to hike down the Cog track and check out a few locations for new mesonet sites. I couldn't have asked for a better day to take that trek. I started out skiing out of the front entrance of the observatory and then headed north down along the track.The wind was only blowing about 25MPH, it was 25 degrees out, and the sun was shining so brightly that by the end of the day my nose and cheeks were nice

An exciting EduTrip opportunity 2010-03-11 18:08:11.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist One of Chef John's creations from New Years During my week off that just ended yesterday, temperatures soared into the 50's in the valley with plenty of sunshine. My time skiing and working at Attitash were spent wearing a light fleece jacket and at times, even just a vest. I even saw people out on road bikes on route 302. All signs that old man winter is starting to slowly lose his grip in the valley. As we would expect, here on the summit winter continues. Temperatures haven't

NULL 2010-03-10 04:19:02.000 - Tom Soisson,  Summit Volunteer NULL As a former science teacher, my greatest interests when spending time on the summit are the various science applications.There's the wind thing going on all the time. After taking ski trips to Utah, Colorado, Montana, and assorted New England areas, I have become impressed with the amount of wind we see in New England and have become used to the frequent wind scoured ice slopes when skiing. I've skied during storms in other locations and not seen as much wind as on a clear day in New England. We apparently live

NULL 2010-03-09 00:23:03.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist NULL Our shift remains the good weather shift. Here's a comparison of some statistics of this shift week (3/3 - 3/9) vs. the other crew's last shift week (2/24 - 3/3). As a precedent, I attributed Wednesday's stats to the up-coming crew of the day. There is a bit of a flaw in that our shift is not concluded until tomorrow, but glancing at the forecast for both today and tomorrow, I'm sure most of our stats will not change (with the exception of an increase in sunshine minutes). Peak Gust:Them: 132

NULL 2010-03-07 13:31:36.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist color and light A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my whirlwind romance with Mount Washington. In my studies, I found the subject of optics and light to be fascinating. There is no shortage of optical phenomena from the summit of Mount Washington. From my first mountain shadow to this morning's sunrise, I am consistently amazed by the display of color and light. Clouds are especially exciting, and not just because we're in them so often. Clouds are nature's forecasters. The type of clouds in the sky can tell the

Yet another comment 2010-03-06 13:43:42.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Observing The Sunrise This morning dawned with a wonderful sunrise and so far the day has continued to be sunny and warm although a little breezy at times. If you look carefully at the sunrise picture, which was taken from the observation deck, you should notice the lack of the guard rail. This is because it's completely buried under snow and rime ice - certainly the best accumulation I've seen up here in the past three winters.From late this morning we have also been seeing some really impressive Lenticular clouds

Snow Fort Shenanigans 2010-03-05 17:03:38.000 - Drew Hill,  Summit Intern Steven Welsh enjoys a fine piece of literature I recently heard somebody refer to storms as ''tantrums of the atmosphere.'' Well, if that's the case, then sign our shift up for a Parent of the Year Award (Those do exist, right?), because the atmosphere up here has been anything but fussy. In fact, another high pressure system has moved into the region, bringing with it impeccably sunny skies. Stacey's out making turns on the East Snowfields, Steve's tanning in a lawn-chair on the Obs Deck, and, well, the intern is

NULL 2010-03-04 16:52:10.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Jinxed, cursed, hexed, ill-fated, star-crossed, condemned, doomed. Whichever word you choose to use will likely accurately describe how Andreas, the professor from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany must feel. After last winter's ridiculous fiasco (German's stranded on top of Mount Washington!), he is most likely becoming used to adversity when it comes to summit trips. To refresh your memory, last year towards the end of February, the summit received about two feet of snow in about two days. There were multiple failed attempts by snow tractors and operators to summit

A Great Week! 2010-03-03 11:53:03.000 - Althea Goundrey,  Summit Volunteer Sledneck! This was my first winter volunteer shift, and had the opportunity to experience the power of sustained winds of 100 mph with gusts of 132.4 mph. The ride to the summit on Thursday was an adventure in itself with Mike Finnegan, Observer, and Wayne, the Smooth Operator, taking turns guiding the snow cat through the zero visibility. Once we were at the summit, it was a quick turn-around for the 4-hour return trip.The first light-of-day was Sunday's sunrise, and that was an epic day for Paul skiing with Brian

What a week! 2010-03-02 23:08:57.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Generally speaking, the summit crew is always pretty anxious to get down the mountain on the Wednesday after spending a week on top. Don't get me wrong, all of us love the mountain and feel very lucky to be here for a week at a time, but we also work very hard while we are here. In a typical 8 day shift we put in at least 80 hours of work but often more towards 90 or even 100 hours on very busy weeks. This alone makes the prospect