November, the Quiet Season 2019-11-09 13:32:33.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   November on the summit is always a quite month. With not much going on, the need for volunteers goes away due to how little needs to be done. All of the winter preparations are finished in October, the building is closed down so there are no tours, and the winter is just beginning so we don’t have as much snow shoveling or de-icing to do. This leaves us with weather observations and our projects that we are working on. The total staff that is staying overnight is

Coming to a Valley Near You: Snow! 2019-11-02 10:20:17.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Over the past few days we’ve received a few inquiries as to when the surrounding valleys will see their first snowfall. For many, the start of November means ski season is right around the corner and people are itching to break out the skis for the first time this season. For the local area especially here in the White Mountains, by Thanksgiving the ski season is hopefully fully underway as this is an important part of the tourism-driven economy in the region. Taking a

Recent Ice Storm 2019-10-29 19:51:32.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   This past weekend we ended up getting a pretty good ice storm up here on the summit. We were originally expecting to get some snow or sleet initially before transitioning to rain in the afternoon. I was on morning observations during the beginning of the storm and was outside when the precipitation first began. The air temperature was 23 degrees so with the line of precipitation moving in, I was waiting for the first snowflakes to start coming down. Instead, I was hit by several drops of rain.

Nights On The Mountain 2019-10-25 17:01:13.000 - Ben Charles, Summit Intern   During my time here as an intern for the Observatory, I have performed many different tasks throughout the day. Typically in a normal day in the life of an intern, I wake up to read the forecast on the morning AMC radio, continue to work on my research project, write the daily evening higher summits forecast, and one of the most exciting parts is getting to shadow observers during their observations. Shadowing day observers for a few shifts has really fueled my curiosity and interest in the observation

Comparing October 2018 and 2019 2019-10-21 13:37:27.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With the month of October already nearing a close I thought I’d take a look back at how this relatively mild start to our fall season compares to right around this time last year. Although we’ve finally recorded our first significant snowfall of the month this past week, we’re still only at a measly 6.6” of snowfall for the month. In reality, the month of October averages 18” of snow and we could end up right around average with another 10 days to go. Still, this

Recapping Our First Major Storm of the Fall 2019-10-19 13:03:41.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   The past few days have the seen the first real winter-like conditions here on the summit in this month of October. Our return to winter (for now) is due in part to an impressive coastal storm that my co-worker Jay posted a great blog leading up to. The storm was notable in my mind for its very strong easterly winds, extremely low pressure, and also some pretty horrendous icing conditions on our tower! The strongest winds were on the front end of the

First Big Storm Of The Season And It's Looking To Be A Doozy 2019-10-15 06:51:36.000 - Jay Broccolo, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Wednesday night into Thursday there will be two areas of low pressure that will merge and potentially undergo explosive development or bombogenesis, meaning that it will likely fall 24 mbars in pressure within 24 hours. The forecasting challenge with these types of setups is that one of the areas of low pressure will likely rapidly develop off the coast of New Jersey and race up along the coast within 24 hours of developing. As of 00z on Tuesday, this developing Low

Founder's Day 2019! 2019-10-11 17:29:51.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Founders Day for the Observatory is just around the corner; Tuesday, October 15th! On that day, 87 years ago, Alex McKenzie, Robert Scott Monahan, Salvatore Pagliuca, Joe Dodge and Tikky the Cat picked up where the U.S. Signal Corps had left off, braved the intense weather conditions and started a weather record that has stood the test of time. With their trusty Sling Psychrometers and their Mercury Barometers set just right, they laid out a legacy that we have proudly continued to this day!   Conditions on the

Testing Webcam Live-Streaming 2019-10-07 05:43:27.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   When I started working here back in late 2005, we had four webcams available to view - our Observation Deck cam, our North View cam, our West View cam, and our Ravines cam (now known as the Wildcat cam). The Observation Deck webcam was mounted in a heated box up in our instrument tower and looked out toward our east over the New Hampshire State Park Sherman Adams Building observation deck and points beyond. Our North View cam is located in a heated box in a room adjacent

First Rime of the Season 2019-10-06 14:14:41.000 - Laura Kee, Summit Intern   Already in my first week and a half on the summit, I have been lucky enough to experience a wide range of exciting weather phenomena, which has given me a great taste of what is yet to come as fall transitions into winter. The most recent one of which included experiencing rime ice for the first time! This is something I had heard about (and seen lots of pictures of) but seeing it for yourself is quite amazing. When I stepped outside onto the observation deck in