Here comes the snow! 2009-10-12 16:39:01.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist The proverbial calm before the storm So far this month, as of yesterday, we have recorded 3.7 inches of snow on the summit. The maximum that has been measured in one day has been 1.1 inches on the 1st. Both of those numbers are going to change tomorrow.The first significant snowfall of the season is at hand. A low pressure system that has been dropping a few inches of snow on the Western Great Lakes region all day today, will continue to track east, through the Ohio River

Transition Season Reminders 2009-10-11 16:55:39.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Any kind of change can be difficult to deal with, especially the kind of change that comes in transition seasons. A lot has been written here in the Observer Comments over the last couple of weeks about the transition season and subsequent changes we have been experiencing here on the summit. Some of these changes are obvious. The summit staff has traded vests for down jackets and gloves as temperatures have dropped. The storm windows have been installed to protect the inner windows from snow and ice. Other

Ice...Lots of Ice 2009-10-10 13:14:58.000 - Will Tourtellot,  Summit Intern Upper Ammonoosuc Falls ** Quick Update*** - We reacquired our link to the valley so the website is up to date with the current summit conditions, forecast etc. Sorry for the hiccup!*I intended to post this comment yesterday, but because of the loss of the link to the valley, I couldn't post it until today.Summer seems to have finally lost it's grip on the the summit and as winter approaches the summit has been pelted with rime ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, ice pellets and all manner of frigid precipitation.

Murphy's Law Takes Effect 2009-10-10 10:37:48.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, usually at the worst possible time. I don't know Murphy. Maybe he's a really nice guy, but right at this moment I sure don't like his law very much. Mike Finnegan, our trusty IT Observer, left the summit yesterday to take a couple vacation days to go to a wedding. A few hours after he left, the microwave radio link from the summit to our Weather Discovery Center in North Conway went down. This is how we get our

Ice Climbing 2009-10-08 22:12:11.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Off the Ground and on Ice! Well, it has been quite an eventful day on the summit. As Ryan mentioned in his last comment, we experienced our first winds over 100 mph last night, topping out at 107 mph a little before 10PM EST. It was nice to go to bed listening to the roar of the wind outside the window, changing pitch with the gusts and lulls. It's like a natural white noise machine or your own personal freight train. Really, who wouldn't want a freight train out their bedroom

100 - we finally got it! 2009-10-07 21:33:52.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist It had been 167 days since we saw a similar chart 167! No, I am not exclaiming that because we reached that wind speed. I am exclaiming that because that is the number of days that have passed since a wind gust over 100 mph passed over the summit. That is more than a third of the year and just shy of being over half the year without the sight of a wind over the century mark. That is a long time on the summit but sort

NULL 2009-10-06 08:19:28.000 - Mary Ellen Dunn,  Summit Intern First Snowfall of the Season. Why meteorology? I get asked that question a lot. Some people are curious, why chose to study meteorology in college? Well, for me personally, weather is such an exciting, rapidly changing science. I have always loved a good thunderstorm, the first snowfall, a beautiful sunrise, and of course, Twister but, it was in my high school Earth Science class when I first considered the idea of becoming a Meteorologist. My teacher was so enthusiastic about the weather in her teaching that I instantly became hooked. A

NULL 2009-10-04 15:11:07.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer the view from above Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons, and its colorful display is created by nature's necessity to survive winter. After a blooming spring, and a sun and rain kissed summer the deciduous trees start to prepare for winter. The trees, like bears, actually hibernate. Why, then, do we get a brilliant show? Plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, chlorophylls in plants (usually in stems and leaves) combine water, carbon dioxide and solar energy to create sugar and oxygen. 6CO2 + 6H2O =

Casey 2009-10-03 04:13:22.000 - Casey Taylor,  Outreach Coordinator Footprint in the snow Observer Mike C. may have told me it was a cliche, but it was really exciting to be up here for the first snowfall of the year this week! Though we were asleep when most of it fell, intern Mary Ellen and I were eager to get outside and "play in the snow (aka mostly rime-covered glaze ice)" on Thursday morning. Now, my fondness for New Hampshire winters is still in its development phase, but there is something undeniably special about that first snowfall of the year. I

October 2009-10-01 05:28:03.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Black & White September is officially history, and October is here! But in the wake of a relatively dry first 29 days, September decided to wait until its curtain had nearly closed to bring our first snowflakes of the season. Generally the first measurable snowfall of the season is witnessed in September (the average monthly total is 2.2"). Last year, however, our inaugural flakes held off until October 2nd, giving the summit its first snow-less September since 2004. This year nearly made it two in a row, but at approx. 5:45 PM