Photos 2009-03-11 08:51:37.000 - Gates Ingram,  Summit Volunteer I just had a day of opposites. Most people think of this as the good vs bad, or on the Rockpile, beautiful vs fog, overcast, etc. For me this happened to be two very beautiful days with nearly equal 100 mi visibility and everything as clear as they could possibly be. The difference? Taking photos.I was blown about leaning into the 60 mph wind last Thurs., with -2 temp and a wind chill of about -34. I had to brace myself against anything offering solid footing, shoot several frames to ensure a

Dick Lindstrom 2009-03-10 11:19:16.000 - Dick Lindstrom,  Summit Volunteer Home of the Worlds Worst Weather! As my tenth annual winter volunteer week on the summit winds down, I have to reflect on what a wonderful, incredible experience this is. This week we've seen 80 plus mile visibility and 10 foot visibility. Winds have approached 100 MPH for hours at a time and dropped to near zero at times. Temperatures have ranged from -16 to + 36 F. But the experience is much more than the weather extremes. For the first four days of the shift, we were hosting a group

Intern mess up 2009-03-09 16:08:09.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern Raven Tracks This afternoon held some maintenance work for me on the summit. Due to the abuse our instruments receive, they occasionally need something tightened or replaced. This is part of the reason why we need to keep the Observatory staffed year round. We are currently testing a small wind vane for a weather instrumentation company. While it is an extremely sturdy little devil, some of the screws come loose after being out in heavy winds and icing for a while. I brought it in, took it apart and made

EST to EDT 2009-03-08 10:51:03.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Daylight savings time started today. This convention of advancing clocks forward an hour in the spring is used to benefit retailing and sports but on the downside it causes problems for farmers and other activities tied to the sun. Well the climatic data we collect up here at the observatory is tied to the sun so we don't advance our clocks. This causes me a couple of problems. Firstly I never know what time it is - is that "obs time" (Eastern Standard Time - EST) or "valley time" (Eastern

NULL 2009-03-06 22:28:38.000 - Mike Carmon,  Observer NULL The theme of the last few comments has been primarily weather-related. It's true that there is a lot more going on up here than that. But the fact is, if the weather on the summit wasn't consistently worthy of our awe and ruminations, none of us would be up here in the first place. So I'm going to take a risk here and talk about weather again (but I promise to try and spice things up with a bit of drama, humanity, and a few mentions of our feline friend, Marty). I

anxious 2009-03-05 16:34:09.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Unrelated to anything, but breath-taking So, big surprise, Ryan Knapp, Senior Staff Meteorologist, talked about the weather. I guess I'm not really one to talk, considering I love to write about the weather. He also wrote about the cat, the Germans, and his forecasting abilities. That leaves little for me to write about. So, I'm going to write about our feelings. Right now, the summit staff and a few of our German cohorts are collectively feeling anxious. On a beautiful day, with a nearly calm, high-visibility day, how could we possibly feel this

Brrr! 2009-03-04 03:02:41.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Yesterdays sunset We have a common saying about the comments up here, 'When there is nothing else to talk about, talk about the weather.' I am not having that problem. In fact, I could talk about the second group of Germans up here. I could talk about the difficulty of forecasting yesterday morning. I could write about the cat. I could write about how cold it was today. I could write about all of these but, every time I wrote a sentence, I would delete it because I wasn't sure where I

Next Week's EduTrip 2009-03-02 16:33:50.000 - Peter Crane,  Director of Programs NULL For website visitors who are considering a winter visit to Mount Washington- there are still a few spaces available on next week's Observatory EduTrip.The Thursday-Friday March 12-13 overnight trip is led by Ned Therrien, whohas extensive experience in outdoor photography, both from his prior careerin the U.S. Forest Service and his current occupation as a professionalphotographer. He has traveled far afield, throughout the Northeast and tolocales such as South America and the Canadian Arctic, and specializes incapturing images which include human activities in a natural setting. He'llshare his

Here Comes the Snow 2009-03-01 17:05:55.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Close call For someone like me, that not only loves the weather but also loves snow (a lot), the anticipation of an impending snow storm is sometimes hard to bear. With how good the operational forecasting models have gotten these days, that hightened anticipation can sometimes start as much as 3 days before the storm's arrival. However, with the way the models have been performing this winter, especially in the 3-5 day range, I was very hesitant to latch onto the current impending snow storm when it started

It was a bright, bright sunshiny day 2009-02-28 20:29:53.000 - Ali Boris,  Summit Intern Gus, Mike, Chris, and Michelle enjoying the day Today was an excellent day for outdoor activities, and we had plenty of them.This morning, Mike and I hiked down to the Lakes of the Clouds, taking advantage of the fresh, crunchy ice with our crampons. The undercast slowly melted away, and we were left with a spectacularly blue view of the valley floor. The walk back up past Tuck's and the summit cone was brisk, but we successfully made it back for the next hour's observation. We