A Beautiful Day 2009-02-16 21:07:13.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Franconia Ridge in a sea of clouds Today was one of those rare, calm days on the summit that occurs at most a handful of times each winter. In fact, today was by far the nicest and calmest day that my shift has seen since winter started. Winds literally went completely calm for a period of time this afternoon. As much as the staff on the summit loves the extreme weather that we see so often, getting a day like this is a treat in its own way.The first

Unusual Events 2009-02-16 07:41:23.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer This week has seen many things not so frequently seen on the summit. As you may recall, we had some warmer temperatures on the summit Wednesday into Thursday, changing what was mainly freezing rain Wednesday night into a variety of frozen precipitation Thursday. The changeover came sooner than expected leaving the summit with some heavy, wet snow...perfect snowball snow! We took the opportunity to add one more member to the summit crew, someone similar to the sphinxes of The Neverending Story. In this case, it was a snowman, Rimey, guarding the

K-H Cloud Siting 2009-02-14 15:10:55.000 - Ali Boris,  Summit Intern K-H Cloud A ship without a mast? A spiky fish? Or just a super-rare cloud formation high over the summit of Mount Washington?I had the great pleasure of walking off of the mountain last shift change with one of our fantastic volunteers, Al Lake. We strapped on some crampons and set off on one of the most beautiful, clear, and warm days I have seen up here. The sky was blue and the snow was settled. As we made our way down past the site of the old halfway stage

Friday the 13th 2009-02-13 16:30:25.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Bad Luck Kitty! To some people the calendar reads February 13, 2009 but to others it is Friday the 13th, one of the unluckiest days of the year. To the superstitious, they avoid walking under ladders, broken mirrors, cracks in the asphalt, and black cats in their paths. Most of these are easily avoidable for us except for the last one. The summit cat, as most of you know, is a black cat that can sometimes be erratic on his path from one point to the other. So, it is

February Thaw 2009-02-12 09:38:18.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist A lot of people out there appreciate a mid-winter thaw. Above freezing temperatures this time of year bring a break from the cold and allow people to get outside to do things they either can't or don't want to do when it is frigid cold.For me on the other hand, these respites from the cold are most unwelcome.First of all, I love winter. In fact, it is by far my favorite season. I love the way the mountains, and the valley for that matter, look with a blanket of white

Century Club Attempt 2009-02-10 22:21:38.000 - Mike Carmon,  Observer The road less traveled There is a distinctive (and perhaps infamous) honor up here on the summit known as the century club. If you're not conscious to it, you become a member when you successfully walk around the perimeter of our observation deck while the winds are sustained at at least 100 mph without holding on to anything, wearing crampons, or most importantly, without falling. Depending on which direction the wind is coming from, it can be a great challenge. Earlier in the week, the models seemed to be pointing towards

Marooned 2009-02-09 11:05:46.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Marooned, and happy about it! There comes a time when a wise snow cat operator must make a decision: to continue on or to turn around. It takes a brave soul to turn around. That may sound counter-intuitive, but allow me to explain.When winds are howling, sustained over 90 mph and gusting well over 100 mph, and fog engulfs the summits, visibility is extremely limited. The winds can make drifts of ten feet with two inches of snow. As the Snow Cat plunges into the depths of the snow drifts, the high winds

comment by volunteer 2009-02-08 11:11:28.000 - Mike Coclough,  Summit Volunteer NULL During dinner the wind rose steadily towards hurricane force (74 mph) and by the time we were done cleaning up from the 17-setting turkey feast around 9 p.m. we noticed it was nearing the 90 mile-per-hour mark. This sent the EduTrip participants to the weather room to watch it. It soon hit 101 miles per hour which is when Ken Olney (my friend and co-volunteer) joined the EduTrippers. The first thing I noticed upon setting foot upstairs was the fact that the windows, through which I took some scenic

Bean 2009-02-07 10:09:09.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern Peekaboo Two Last Wednesday was a slightly different shift change. First was the ride up in our plush new snow cat. The Observatory upgraded to a new (to us) cat from BitterRoot Resort in Montana, complete with bucket seats, a TV and Alpine speakers. We also had some guests up from LL Bean, one of our chief sponsors. It was great to meet the folks from LL Bean, two of which were gentlemen from the research and product design wings. We are all outfitted with LL Bean gear, and the purpose of

warming up 2009-02-05 18:39:43.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer NULL There was something different about today. It was hard to put my finger on it at first. Could it be the cold? Nah, that's been the norm for this winter. Was it the sunshine, the glorious warmth emanating from that relatively averaged sized ball of burning gas? I think that must be it, though 'warmth' is certainly a relative term, considering our high temperature for the day is 8 degrees below zero. Last week, I think we saw sunshine once or twice. This week is looking to be a bit different,