Winter Weather 2009-09-25 15:46:56.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer First Ride of the Season! Winter is not quite in full force on the summit yet, but it is not too far off either. I awoke this morning to the sights, sounds, and smells of winter all around me. By sights, I guess I initially mean the lack of sights as the windows overlooking the northern peaks were covered over in rime and glaze. I headed outside to inspect the condition of the observation deck. Winds had been strong enough to build up a fair amount of rime on the deck,

Reflection On Extreme Weather 2009-09-24 13:57:11.000 - Will Tourtellot,  Summit Intern Amazing Cloud Formations from Sept. 14th Yesterday marked the beginning of my third week on the summit and I'm more excited than ever to be back on this mysterious mountain. Not much has happened, in the way of weather, since my last comment, except for the rime ice and 91 mph gust from this past Saturday, Sept 19th. I'm extremely jealous that Mary-Ellen Dunn, my counterpart on last week's shift, was able to experience the first "cough" of winter! It seems that I have a penchant for experiencing extreme

NULL 2009-09-23 07:33:08.000 - Sharon Camp and Sandy Fisher,  Summit Volunteers Mountain Top High Friends , though often referred to as sisters, we have experienced many "mountain top" highs through years of volunteer trips near and far. Raised in neighboring Lancaster, Sharon had never been to the summit of Mt Washington. Volunteering as cooks for the Observatory crew became a bucket list priority. We have totally enjoyed cooking our favorites for the dedicated and knowledgeable staff who have made us feel like family for the eight day stay.Weather wise, we have had the most phenomenal week, one that we could

Equinox 2009-09-22 05:11:07.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist The Seasons Today at 5:18 PM EDT, a special astronomical event will occur, and you probably wouldn't notice unless you were told. In case you blinked, I can tell you that today is September 22nd, which (for 2009) means the first day of astronomical fall, and yet another summer has drawn to a close. What occurs at 5:18 PM? The autumnal equinox (for the Northern Hemisphere). Because our educational observer has left us for the last half of the week, I'll attempt to explain how this works:The earth revolves around the sun,

Great Weather 2009-09-21 08:20:14.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Another great sunrise The wintry blast of wind and ice that graced the summit on Saturday has past - in the end it was just a quick taste of things to come . In fact the weather has done a complete 180 since then with temperatures already in the mid 50s and still heading up and winds struggling to reach 5 mph. Quite a change.Yesterday was really spectacular up here with both an amazing sunrise and sunset - it's not often that we get both in the same day. The air

NULL 2009-09-19 15:20:26.000 - Mary Ellen Dunn,  Summit Intern De-icing the tower So, I finally got a small taste of the crazy, extreme weather I have been waiting for! With the passage of a strong cold front from Canada, strong winds, colder temperatures, and rime ice has hit the Summit in the past 24 hours or so. Winds began picking up yesterday afternoon and stayed strong through the night into this morning. Winds were averaging around 60-70mph with a peak gust of 91mph here on the summit. It was definitely hard not to keep an eye on the hays wind

NULL 2009-09-18 11:06:16.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist Above the clouds, but not for long It seems that our fog and wind machines are working again. Visibility is down to approximately 75 feet, (that's being generous) and winds are blowing at a consistent 55 mph, gusting over 60 mph and it's in the mid thirties. It's a bit of a 180 from our last shift week. However, we're all exceedingly excited because the weather is going to get even more interesting. Interesting for folks on top of Mount Washington usually means two things, cold and windy. A cold front

NULL 2009-09-16 14:06:12.000 - Mark Rohssler,  Summit Volunteer NULL As we enter the middle of the fall season on the Rockpile, the weather has once again not failed to surprise us. During the eight days that I have been here, we have gone from beautiful, warm, clear days with unlimited visibility, to cold and windy days with fog and no visibility. I have been on various EduTrips and have always been fortunate and amazed by the hospitality and great food afforded to me by the volunteers and staff of Mount Washington Observatory. I am extremely grateful to be able to

Volunteer experiences 2009-09-15 16:13:41.000 - John Neilsen,  Summit Volunteer This was my first week volunteering on the summit and cooking for the crew has been a great experience. The first half of the week the weather was sunny and clear with low winds. I went out on the observation deck late at night and the Milky Way looked like someone painted it across the sky. I was also able to get a few hikes in during the day, one in each direction (north and south) for a total of about four miles. One hike down to Lakes of the Clouds

Cool clouds! 2009-09-14 16:54:43.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL This shift has been a good one for seeing interesting clouds. For last Saturday's comment, I posted a picture of some cool looking clouds we saw when the fog broke during that morning. Yesterday morning we saw some nice lenticulars, a picture of which I posted on the Observatory's page on Facebook. Then today we saw more lenticulars, along with some very unique and beautiful cloud formations that I'm not even sure how to classify. In some ways it seemed a lot like a cap cloud, but in other