Big Changes 2008-11-20 15:45:44.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Anyone that is even somewhat familiar with Mount Washington knows that the weather can change drastically in relatively short periods of time. This has certainly been the case over the last few days. Four days ago, temperatures were in the mid 40’s and it was raining. Five days ago, the daily record high for November 15 was broken (the previous record was 45 degrees set back in 1993). However yesterday, upon arriving on the summit for the start of a new shift, my crew was greeted by temperatures just below zero with

Stacey's going to Hawaii 2008-11-18 16:55:37.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Can you say mai tai? For those of you who don’t know, I will be taking a vacation, my first since beginning my stint as Educational Observer in August of 2007. Now, some would argue that I get a vacation every other week. I beg to differ. I get my weekends every other week. One of the great advantages of working 80+ hours per week is that when you finally take your vacation, you get a whopping three weeks without work. I’ve decided to take that time to visit my

Casey's first week on the summit! 2008-11-17 16:33:40.000 - Casey Taylor,  Outreach Educator First (and only) sunset Having worked with the Appalachian Mountain Club at Pinkham Notch for much of the past year, I had grown accustomed to Mount Washington being a part of daily life. I would wake up every morning and would immediately check to see what the weather on the summit was, and would constantly explain to school groups about the extreme weather found “on the rockpile.” Now, as the new Outreach Educator for the Observatory, I have been lucky enough to gain a new perspective on

adjusting back to the valley 2008-11-16 13:35:29.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern The only blue sky we've seen all week. Living on the summit of Mount Washington brings many new perspectives to the rest of one's life. In many ways, it is like living on another planet, especially in the wintery months. For more than half the year, traveling to and from the summit is a strenuous activity, and it is nearly impossible at times. The climate is starkly different from the area around us, and one must hike at least a mile to see trees, lakes, ponds, or rivers

Rainy Days 2008-11-15 15:08:52.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern Blowing Rain Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. Our shift is yet again graced with interesting weather. Since Thursday morning we have been watching the inside of a cloud, breaking out to see beyond the deck only once in that time. Right now we have sustained 50 MPH winds and moderate rainfall. The forecast is calling for more fog, more rain, more wind. I’m being reminded of my childhood, when all I wanted to do was sneak out and jump in the puddles. Now, even though my research and

Website Changes 2008-11-14 05:07:55.000 - Staff,  Mount Washington Observatory NULL As you see, we’ve made quite a few changes and upgrades to our website! We hope that you enjoy what you see. More on that in a moment.Please note that our web server is also being upgraded to support the steady growth of the number of Observatory web visitors. We will be upgrading our site to a new server on Saturday evening, November 15, between 10 PM and Midnight. As the server hardware including hard drives are being replaced, the site will be inaccessible for up to one hour during

Volunteers 2008-11-12 14:04:55.000 - Summit Volunteers,  NULL NULL Over many years and countless trips here, whether walking, driving or riding, I've made a point of paying my respects to Lizzie Bourne. She was a 23yr. old girl from Maine who died here, within view of the summit, in 1855. It would seem such a waste of life at that age and had she listened to her elders, she most likely would never experienced the awesome power of Mt. Washington. Our arrival last Wednesday found the mountain quite calm and warm temperatures nearly breaking records. The few views we had were

Average October 2008-11-11 23:05:26.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL According to the summit dictionary, one of the definitions for “average” is: lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered. Some synonyms listed with “average” are: common, customary, ordinary, standard, or usual. I almost want to write to them and add one more: October. It is not that I hold anything against the month of October personally but after finishing up our monthly summary this week for the month of October, I found it to be on the whole, average.October is certainly not our coldest, warmest, windiest or snowiest month

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