Home of the World's Worst Weather Live! 2020-03-30 14:09:36.000 - Rebecca Scholand, Summit Operations Manager   It’s nothing new that the Mount Washington Observatory is committed to education. In fact, part of our mission is to advance the understanding of the natural systems that create Earth’s weather and Climate. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing schools to close nationwide we hit the drawing board to create a virtual classroom. Starting today, we are offering free distance learning programs three times a week to support educators in providing remote learning opportunities from the “Home of the World’s Worst Weather”. Utilizing

METAR Code: How it led to a Unique Social Distancing Selfie 2020-03-23 21:08:24.000 - Rebecca Scholand, Summit Operations Manager   METAR: Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report   Every hour of every day the Mount Washington Observatory issues a METAR observation from the summit. It is these observations that get disseminated through the Aviation Digital Data Service. Yesterday was like any other day on the summit, but the weather being recorded precipitated into one of the more unique social distancing selfies. Let me explain...   Aviation and weather have been a large part of my life since I was a

An Update on My Internship 2020-03-08 15:38:00.000 - Eve Cinquino, Summit Intern   Intern Eve Cinquino here! I’m about half way through my time on the Rockpile, and it’s been an incredible experience so far. I’ve learned so much about weather forecasting (I studied physics in college, so I’ll happily talk to you about quantum mechanics, but I still don’t know the different types of clouds), experienced 100+ mph winds (did you see the video of me blowing around the deck the other day??), and gotten to know some really awesome people (and one very fluffy cat)! I’ve also been

First Week on the Summit! 2020-03-03 21:06:19.000 - David DeCou, Weather Observer     Greetings from the Summit of Mount Washington! My name is David DeCou, and I am the new Night Observer in training here at the Observatory. I originally grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and spent the last few months of my life working in Antarctica at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as a Weather Observer. It has been an exciting week of many firsts for me, and I don’t think anything could have prepared me for my amazing experiences here during my first time on the

Why the East Wind Busted my Forecast and The Reason for the Rapid East to West Wind Shift for Thursday’s Low 2020-03-02 17:29:10.000 - Caleb Buchler, Summit Intern   Our shift started off with winds less than five mph! I found it hard to believe the next day we would be experiencing gusts around the century mark. Mount Washington made me forget how quickly it can change its mood. On Wednesday, while creating my forecast with our new observer Dave, I explained to him that strong winds out of the East are often gustier than our predominant winds from the

Our Shift Is Whole Again! 2020-02-29 19:04:06.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   It has been another week of crazy winter weather here on the summit! High winds, lots of snow, low visibility; the typical Mount Washington Winter Experience. But outside the weather, it has been a very pleasant and exciting week as well! For the first time since the beginning of January, we have a full crew! I’ll let him speak for himself when he posts later this week, but it has been such a pleasure meeting and working with David! He came in to the Obs from

It's Cold! 2020-02-14 14:53:31.000 - Caleb Buchler, Summit Intern   We experienced a small snow event Wednesday night into Thursday this week where we saw only 2 to 3 inches on the summit. Some models were predicting a much heavier event but with a strong upper-level jet streak hanging out over New England, the system passed through very quickly. By mid-morning Thursday, the low pressure system had already moved Northeast over Nova Scotia. Lingering up-slope snow showers continued on the backside of the storm throughout the day with the heaviest portion of the storm being short-lived. I am still waiting

Comparing Winter 2019 and 2020 to Date on Mt Washington 2020-02-06 13:30:40.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With half of our 2019-2020 winter season now behind us I thought I’d take a look at how Mount Washington’s data compares to our climate normals and put this season so far into a historical perspective. The winter across much of New Hampshire has felt like a pretty mild one, especially with last year’s impressive snow season fresh in our memories. There’s several ways to look at what constitutes a “successful”, or snowy winter season; with snowfall, snow depth, and temperature

A Quiet and Beautiful Week Two 2020-02-05 08:00:31.000 - Caleb Buchler, Summit Intern   My second week is finishing up and it was a much different (but still awesome) experience from my first week! In my first week, I was thrown into the lion’s den experiencing winds nearly at 120 mph on my third day here! This week, however, conditions were extremely “calm” by Mount Washington’s standards. We barely saw any gusts over any gusts over 50 mph all week until Monday afternoon! We had a weak high pressure ridge hanging out over New England for the first half of

From Crazy to Calm! 2020-02-03 14:34:14.000 - Ian Bailey, Meteorologist/Education Specialist   We’re coming up on the end of another shift here on the summit of Mount Washington. And I’ve got to say, this shift has been VASTLY different compared to our last one. Last shift was crazy! We had 100+ mph winds for nearly 3 days, temperatures well below 0 (and wind chills even further down than that), and lots of awesome groups coming up for trips all weekend. It was certainly and whirlwind, pun intended. But this shift has been much more mellow! Just what we needed after