Frrezing Rain 2008-12-16 16:43:53.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer NULL It has been much harder being away from home this week compared to most. In the scheme of things last Thursday's ice storm really didn't affect us much up here. After all we are living in a warm and comfortable bunker built into solid rock with two foot thick reinforced concrete walls. We have our own generators, lots of food and no commute to work. Freezing rain just makes things a little slippier than usual but otherwise isn't really a big deal. Compared to what happened in the south of

windy day 2008-12-15 17:57:00.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern Sunrise yesterday. Today I did a poor job of managing my expectations. Since Friday, we have been eyeing the forecast models' predictions of good wind speeds today. Yesterday afternoon, one model was reporting 108 mph for 1PM today. Since models predict average wind speed, the peak is likely to be higher. In addition, the models often underestimate our wind speeds due to the unique geography of this area. So we were all pretty excited about getting some good wind, and I was hoping we would hit 110 or even top last

Wind! 2008-12-14 09:33:21.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern GUS Helical Wind Turbine If the summit of Mount Washington is so windy, why doesn’t the Observatory use wind turbines to generate power?I will attempt to briefly answer this question. The general public is mostly familiar with the three blade wind turbine. The summit cannot use this in the winter because so much centrifugal force is exerted by the spinning motion of the blades that if any rime ice were to form on the blades (which it inevitably would, since rime ice covers anything that the wind hits during freezing fogging conditions),

blown forecast 2008-12-12 14:09:06.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Free falling temperature Yesterday’s comment was all about how excited I was for the coming snow, and that we should remain cold throughout the storm. Well, guess who was wrong. This is neither the first time nor the last time a forecast on Mount Washington has been shattered to bits and pieces. It does hurt a little though, and not just because my forecasting ego took a big bruise. While the summit got a little bit of ice, then a lot of rain, the rest of NH got hammered with ice. Over

let it snow! 2008-12-11 14:34:20.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Let it snow! Snow is on the way! An area of low pressure fueled by the Gulf of Mexico’s warm air is heading northeast. Loaded with moisture, it should pass to the south and east of the higher summits, keeping us in the cooler portion of the storm, the warm front not quite reaching us. This means snow, and lots of it! In fact, the National Weather Service was calling for up to 14 inches in the mountains.Does that mean 14 inches of fresh powder for the summit crew’s personal recreational

Observatory Christmas List... 2008-12-10 05:30:03.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Snail mail letter. Dear Santa-This year, I am starting early that way I can mail you the summits Christmas list since last year I forgot until it was too late. You really need to make your email a bit more memorable as I keep forgetting and losing the email you provided us a few years back in return to providing you with a Christmas night forecast for New Hampshire. But, just in case our letter goes to the South Pole instead of the North Pole, I will post a comment

Rime-lapse 2008-12-09 21:49:34.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Rime time. Over the last few months, I have been dabbling in time-lapse photography of subjects relating to the summit. As of yesterday, I had only been satisfied and posted one video and that was in our ObsCast a few weeks ago on the subject of our barograph (November 10, 2008). In that video I shot a picture every 10 minutes over 3 hours to show how the pressure trends on an instrument that barely moves. The resulting video only lasts a matter of seconds but shows movement that even I had

122 MPH Wind Gust and Record Cold 2008-12-08 20:10:17.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Houston, We Have A Problem Some people need coffee in the morning to wake up. Some people need to geta hot shower. Well, I don't drink coffee (it stunts your growth you know)and showers aren't an option on the summit this time of year. Luckily, ona day like today I have the weather to wake me up, in more ways than one. A wind gust of 122.4 mph (our peak gust for the day corrected for temperature andpressure at the time of the gust) at 5:33 a.m.

Novembers summary. 2008-12-07 17:46:08.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL November is a month that most Americans give thanks. Thanks for family, thanks for food, thanks for life, etc. On the summit, it was a month to give thanks to some of the weather that we experienced and hope for what might come. Once again it is the first two weeks of the month which means it is time for me to do the monthly check for the previous month which in turn shows us how we are standing in terms of monthly and annual totals and how they compare

Three 2008-12-06 17:57:28.000 - Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern Snow-covered summit ...And then there were three.The remainder of this shift is promising to be a very quiet one on the summit—as far as staff goes. As Mike F mentioned in a comment a few days ago, he is turning his coat and switching to our shift. He worked only part of our shift this week, and headed down this (Saturday) morning. That brought the total number of staff up here from 5 to 4.In addition, we lost our volunteer for the week a few hours later due to extenuating circumstances. That