Obscast ideas 2008-11-10 22:31:23.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist We have all heard it before: Which came first the chicken or the egg? A conundrum that has an infinite amount of answers depending on a person’s education, beliefs, philosophies, etc. So instead, I pose this question: Which came first, the idea for an Obscast or the music we use in an Obscast? For the uninformed, an Obscast is short for “Observatory Webcast.” These are short videos (usually about three minutes) that are produced by the observatory staff and posted to our website every Monday morning. If you are a member,

Changes in the Weather 2008-11-09 15:33:05.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Winter returns As Mike touched on in his comment yesterday, since Tuesday the summit has been experiencing a heat wave of sorts, at least relatively speaking. Average daily temperatures for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were 38, 41, 41, 44, and 41. Although that may not sound like a heat wave in November to most people, you have to consider how that compares to average. Those average daily temperatures are 14, 17, 17, 20, and 18 degrees above normal respectively. That’s significant. In fact, for the month of November so

Extremes 2008-11-08 17:12:58.000 - Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern NULL Mt. Washington is known as a place of extremes—and it never ceases to amaze. You’ve probably read many of our comments about the “good weather” vs. “bad weather” shift. It’s definitely seemed to work like clockwork around here. But—as I had been begging for in a comment I wrote last shift—I finally got a taste of winter on Mt. Washington. The last Wednesday morning of my previous shift (October 29th), I had the privilege of doing my first bit of de-icing since arriving at the Observatory back in late August during

A rare sight 2008-11-07 17:11:59.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer As far as the weather is concerned, shift change this past Wednesday was extremely uneventful for this time of year. With temperatures in the low 40’s and the summit in the clear, we set off from the base of the Auto Road with both the truck and the van and no plans of putting chains on for the entire trip up. It turned out that there were only a couple spots on the road that had any significant amount of snow left, and those were easily taken care of by the

Summit votes. 2008-11-06 14:54:07.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist I, or should I say, we voted! If you are an avid reader of our comments, you are probably aware that we do our shift changes on Wednesdays. One group of observers, interns and volunteers comes up for a week on while the other group heads down. In the summer, it is fairly easy to go up and down the mountain as the need arises. But since we are in what are considered winter months (although the last couple of days you wouldn’t think it as it is in the 40s

volunteer comment 2008-11-05 09:01:58.000 - Summit Volunteer,  Summit Volunteer NULL A great big “Howdy” to all of you Mt. Washington Observatory supporters and followers. I am closing in on the end of my volunteer week here on the summit and it has been a gas. Stacey, Steve, Mike, Jordan, Jeff and Marty have made me feel right at home and I know I have made some new fair and foul weather friends. I've gotta tell ya, these folks are true professionals. They absolutely love what they do. They truly enjoy taking time to work with the volunteers and embrace their

cold weather 2008-11-04 06:40:17.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern Snowy sunrise Friday This week has been the coldest I have seen yet. We arrived on the summit last Wednesday with temperatures around 10 degrees, and they did not climb above freezing until yesterday afternoon. Also, from our arrival through Sunday, the wind was typically in the 60s and did not drop below 40 mph for more than a few minutes. On Sunday morning the temperature dropped to 2 degrees above zero, something I would consider unusual for November were I not on top of Mount Washington. Ironically, Sunday was also

Lakes Work 2008-11-03 11:53:01.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern Crew upon return Yesterday we were finally able to show Anna and Tanya the rarely seen sunny and friendly side of Mount Washington. Jeff, Mike, Steve the volunteer, Anna, Tanya and I went for a hike down to the Lakes of the Clouds hut. The true purpose of our hike was to shut off some of our remote sensing equipment for the winter season that we have at the hut. Since it is closed and locked up for the season, I had to stand guard at the door while Jeff, Mike

Sunday 2008-11-02 18:51:40.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Sunset on Friday When I started my shift at 5am this morning the weather was foggy, cold (3 degrees) and windy (60 mph) - it was definitely a little chilly venturing outside to take observations. But as they say, if you don't like the weather in New England just wait an hour or two. Sure enough just after sunrise the fog lifted leaving us with fine views over the surrounding snow capped peaks. As high pressure continued to built in, the winds dropped dramatically and, thanks to the ample sunshine, the temperatures

Happy Halloween 2008-11-01 14:34:03.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer rime and snow blanket the summit High winds and cold temperatures kept the trick-or-treaters away from the summit last night, but that didn’t put a damper on our Halloween festivities. Our Halloween was extra special because we were able to share it with our friends from Russia, who don’t normally celebrate this holiday. Costumes were adorned and the celebration included Russian mushroom and barley soup (made by Anna and Tatiana), two desserts (pumpkin pie and marmalade turnovers), popcorn, and appropriately scary movies. Even Marty dressed up! Today is Tatiana’s 23rd birthday, and