A wet day 2009-03-29 18:06:51.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Typically, I enjoy having an excuse to go outside every hour when I am the observer on duty. In fact, this is one of the things I like best about my job. Today was an exception; I was not the least bit disappointed to finish out my shift of the hourly observations at 5 p.m.The reason was the weather. A large batch of precipitation moved onto the summit around 8 or 9 o'clock this morning. It started as plain rain with temperatures hovering just above freezing, but a

Oliver Twist with a twist... 2009-03-28 17:09:04.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist It is currently March 28th, which means that March is nearly drawing the curtains to a close. It is a month that is known for coming in like a lion and exiting like a lamb and this couldn't be truer than this year. As Brian alluded to in his Accuweather Blog yesterday, the summit has seen more sunshine than snowfall these past few weeks. He found that from March 13 until the 26th, the summit has seen an average of 74 percent of possible sunshine minutes. This has

Springtime on the Summit with Marty 2009-03-27 15:22:27.000 - Ali Boris,  Summit Intern Exploring the summit on "built in crampons" The warm weather that we've been having has allowed more time outside for all of us, including Marty. My last shift up here was the first time that I had seen him out of the building (I've been here since January 14th), and he's gone out several times this shift. Often he'll agree to come into the stairway of the tower, but hasn't ventured up to the obs deck with me before. On Thursday morning, he did his normal routine

Summit Hike 2009-03-26 17:46:56.000 - Ali Boris,  Summit Intern Winter Ascent of Mt. Washington Part of the essential experience of working on a mountain is making it to the summit on your own two feet. While a leisurely snow cat ride allows you bypass "bad" weather and save your energy for tasks around the observatory, it cannot provide the feeling of accomplishment and acquaintance with the mountain that hiking to the top can. Ryan, Mike, Chef John Bauhs, our cat driver, Wayne, and I decided to hike up before our shift this week. The forecasts had been for a cloudy

Back on Top 2009-03-24 17:25:05.000 - Ken Rancourt,  Director of Summit Operations NULL It is not often that I get to spend time on top during the winter months. Wednesday's shift change trip is usually very tightly packed with people, gear, food, and supplies. And special guests (members of the media, contractors, etc.) usually fill up the remaining spaces. My trip up was with Peter on his Monday Day-Trip. On Wednesday morning MWO will be doing a special presentation to the World Wildlife Fund's 2009 Climate Savers Summit in Washington, DC. Scot Henley will be the introducing speaker and set

NULL 2009-03-23 01:07:33.000 - Mike Carmon,  Observer The summit from Ball Crag In case you haven't read the comments from the last few days, the weather has been uncharacteristically tame recently. Yesterday Jordan gave you an account of how he took advantage of the calm conditions, and now I'll do the same.Being the night observer, it is much easier to get out during the day. It simply means getting up a bit earlier (some days that's easier than others). I woke up Friday afternoon and the sun was shining bright, the winds were around 5 mph, and temperatures were reasonably

Hike to S. Presidentials 2009-03-21 16:22:34.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern NULL As Stacey mentioned yesterday, it was quite the day! Incredibly light winds coupled with no clouds made for one of the best days I've had on the summit so far. I was able to get out for a hike, which made the day even better. I took a leisurely stroll down the Crawford Path past Lakes of the Clouds and up onto Mt. Monroe, stopping briefly to talk to a few other hikers. I made my way down to Mt. Franklin, then doubled back to a false summit

First day of spring! 2009-03-20 12:29:18.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer sublimating rime Today is the first day of spring. It is going to be a beautiful day on the summit, in the valleys, and pretty much up and down the entire eastern seaboard. It is very fitting. Spring means melting snow, skiing in t-shirts, birds and their songs, longer days, shorter nights, and the overall greening of the valleys, as well as the unavoidable mud season.Today, winds will be light and variable on the summit, a somewhat unusual occurrence. Temperatures will rise into the lower teens and skies overhead will

De-icing 2009-03-19 12:08:29.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer De-icing So what exactly is the contraption shown in the accompanying picture? Read on to find out.Yesterday we had several periods of freezing rain and ice pellets which left everything, including our office windows, covered in hard opaque ice. This morning we started to clear from the freezing fog and, rather that running up and down the stairs to keep an eye on the weather, we decided to try and clear the ice from the office windows. After some trial and error we found that positioning a low powered heater several inches

Volunteer Thoughts 2009-03-18 08:55:28.000 - Mt. Washington,  Summit Volunteers Marty's Bad Fur Day. It's been an incredibly busy and beautiful week up here on the rock pile. We had the amazing experience of viewing sunsets and sunrises seven out of seven days;along with the opportunity to meet a variety of fascinating and interesting people. Mike and I spent the better part of the week in planning, preparation, serving and clean up for Edu trips, special visits, day trippers and EMS hikers. We have developed and honed our skills for managing busy weeks and look forward to reflecting on and refining