Recapping Our First Major Storm of the Fall 2019-10-19 13:03:41.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   The past few days have the seen the first real winter-like conditions here on the summit in this month of October. Our return to winter (for now) is due in part to an impressive coastal storm that my co-worker Jay posted a great blog leading up to. The storm was notable in my mind for its very strong easterly winds, extremely low pressure, and also some pretty horrendous icing conditions on our tower! The strongest winds were on the front end of the

First Big Storm Of The Season And It's Looking To Be A Doozy 2019-10-15 06:51:36.000 - Jay Broccolo, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Wednesday night into Thursday there will be two areas of low pressure that will merge and potentially undergo explosive development or bombogenesis, meaning that it will likely fall 24 mbars in pressure within 24 hours. The forecasting challenge with these types of setups is that one of the areas of low pressure will likely rapidly develop off the coast of New Jersey and race up along the coast within 24 hours of developing. As of 00z on Tuesday, this developing Low

Founder's Day 2019! 2019-10-11 17:29:51.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Founders Day for the Observatory is just around the corner; Tuesday, October 15th! On that day, 87 years ago, Alex McKenzie, Robert Scott Monahan, Salvatore Pagliuca, Joe Dodge and Tikky the Cat picked up where the U.S. Signal Corps had left off, braved the intense weather conditions and started a weather record that has stood the test of time. With their trusty Sling Psychrometers and their Mercury Barometers set just right, they laid out a legacy that we have proudly continued to this day!   Conditions on the

Testing Webcam Live-Streaming 2019-10-07 05:43:27.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   When I started working here back in late 2005, we had four webcams available to view - our Observation Deck cam, our North View cam, our West View cam, and our Ravines cam (now known as the Wildcat cam). The Observation Deck webcam was mounted in a heated box up in our instrument tower and looked out toward our east over the New Hampshire State Park Sherman Adams Building observation deck and points beyond. Our North View cam is located in a heated box in a room adjacent

First Rime of the Season 2019-10-06 14:14:41.000 - Laura Kee, Summit Intern   Already in my first week and a half on the summit, I have been lucky enough to experience a wide range of exciting weather phenomena, which has given me a great taste of what is yet to come as fall transitions into winter. The most recent one of which included experiencing rime ice for the first time! This is something I had heard about (and seen lots of pictures of) but seeing it for yourself is quite amazing. When I stepped outside onto the observation deck in

Flux Tower Project III 2019-09-29 15:47:12.000 - Ben Charles, Summit Intern   Hello everyone, after an amazing experience being an intern here for the summer I am lucky enough to say I am staying for the fall internship. This summer I did a lot from forecasting, giving tours, and doing research. My previous research project that I did this summer with intern Austin Patrick was called the Flux Tower Project. This consisted of comparing the accuracy and precision of handheld Kestrel instruments to the instruments on the Mount Washington Observatory deck and tower. Focusing on the variables of temperature, humidity,

Western Snow and a Look Ahead 2019-09-27 19:16:02.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Watching the weather over the past few days and watching a snow storm of epic proportions forming in the front range of Montana. A large low pressure system will be forming in the lee of the Rocky Mountains will create several days of easterly flow in Montana, leading to heavy upslope snow in the Glacier National Park area. Below is an image from the National Weather Service in Great Falls MT, in regards to what they think the expected snowfall is. As a person who

A Taste of All Seasons 2019-09-24 10:07:54.000 - Laura Kee, Summit Intern   Hello everyone, my name is Laura and I’m the new fall intern up here on the summit! I am very excited to be able to live and work at the Home of the World’s Worst Weather, which has been a dream of mine for quite some time. Earlier this year, I graduated from Cornell with a degree in Atmospheric Science and a minor in Climate Change. I grew up outside of Boston which has helped fuel my love of all things meteorological, given the wide range of

Information For Autumn 2019-09-23 05:30:06.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   Autumn has arrived and like usual, we have been receiving inquiries about foliage and the operating hours of the summit. I thought I’d take a minute to address these two items so you might be better informed for the days and weeks ahead.   When will we see peak foliage? To be honest, your guess is as good as ours as there is no set day/week and things can vary from location to location and from year to year. A great example of this is a post that

Can I Bug You for a Minute? (Identifying an Insect on Mount Washington) 2019-09-21 09:37:56.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   While enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the top of the tower I stumbled upon an interesting looking beetle and decided to take a photo just for fun. It was a picture perfect day with light winds and I was actually painting the very top of our tower, taking advantage of the rare, nearly calm wind conditions on Thursday. I’m very glad I stopped to take this photo. After doing a little bit of research to identify the species