building closes 2008-10-20 07:30:10.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer The building is closed for the season The Sherman Adams building is now closed. The museum attendant (Sharon), the interns (Jeff and Jordan), and Bill G (the retail coordinator), will all be packing up the museum today. This means two things: no more tours, and no more showers.As soon as the building closes, we are transferred to the winter septic system, which means we have to be extremely conservative with our waste water. We have a well so we can drink as much water as is needed, but we have to store

hike and length of day 2008-10-18 21:53:47.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern NULL With the colder weather over our past two shifts, it has been difficult to get outside for any length of time. For some reason I'm not motivated to go for a hike when it's 20 degrees, 60 mph wind, and rime icing. Today the wind finally subsided enough so that 20 degrees didn't feel so cold. I took the opportunity to get outside for a short hike before sunset, visiting Mount Clay briefly. All afternoon, the summit was in and out of a thin but dense layer

A Brisk Awakening 2008-10-17 22:35:44.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Ocean Reflections It may have been written before, but one of the best methods of arousing the senses after a night's slumber is to head to the top of the tower in relatively chilly weather. Though we missed snow by a little bit, we were treated to an adequate amount of rime ice and glaze ice. I knew my forecast had been a slightly wrong when I heard Mike deicing just before I arose. However, the fog cleared and left us with a partial undercast and a clear line of view

Intern Research 2008-10-16 15:52:53.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern I’ve given quite a few tours since my shift came back up yesterday to members from all over the world. One of the questions that continue to come up is how a math and economics graduate got an internship at the Mount Washington Observatory. The Observatory has long had a history of not only weather observation but also academic research. In addition to living and playing on the summit, I have been putting my degree to work by doing research. Right now I am working on a project comparing temperature probes.

Closing dates 2008-10-15 06:18:29.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL Everything that has a beginning has an end. Your favorite book (or literature series), a movie (or trilogy), TV shows, schools…you get the idea. Well, even Mt. Washington has its endings. The one I am talking about is the summer tourist season on the summit. I mentioned this in this weeks Obscast, but realizing that a good number of our comment readers are not member of the organization or just do not watch the Obscast, I thought it might be worth mentioning these dates again. So here we go:So let’s

NULL 2008-10-14 16:27:16.000 - Steve Yenco,  Summit Volunteer Atlantic Ocean View from the Summit Can you love two mountains? Being raised in Lisbon Falls, Maine a fell in love with Mount Washington and the surrounding White Mountains through my parents at a very early age. While they were not hikers we still spent a great deal of time in the area and with each trip my love for the mountains grew. As the years rolled along I took up skiing, snowshoeing and hiking. For most of these hikes Mount Washington was always the grand view that waited at the summit.

Columbus Day 2008-10-13 16:49:57.000 - Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern Sunday Night Sunset It feels like Labor Day Weekend was not too long ago, when the summit was packed with visitors and the museum shop made record sales. It’s hard to believe that was back in early September on my first shift. Fast forward about six weeks. Déjà vu! It’s been another crazy weekend up here on the summit, and it had nothing to do with the weather. As expected, the last of the major crowds rolled through due to Columbus Day weekend. Saturday was the busiest day of the weekend,

Volunteer Notes. 2008-10-12 16:46:15.000 - Steve Hill,  Summit Volunteer Fall on the summits. Fall is a wonderful time of year! And one of the best parts of the fall is the week I get to spend on top of Mount Washington, volunteering at the Mount Washington Observatory. I cannot wait to come back next year.The shift started as it normally does -- meeting in the parking lot at the base of the Auto Road. While I knew Ryan and Brian from previous tours on the summit, I had not met Mike or Sharon before. Also, there would be another volunteer

Fall Colors 2008-10-11 17:16:56.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Fall Colors in Mt Washington Valley Today has been an unusual Saturday for me. When I'm on shift Saturday is the half way point through the Observatory work week, which typically runs from Wednesday to Wednesday. When I'm off shift Saturday is a day to catch up with house work and spend time with my family. Today I started off at home but ended up on the summit. The reason for this odd situation is that I'm standing in for Brian, who's giving a presentation, on our 1934 record breaking wind

Marty the Star 2008-10-10 18:01:20.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Getting filmed The Observatory was visited by the media yet again today. Generally, media that comes to the summit is interested in the weather and the work that the summit staff does. Sometimes these stories digress to talk about how we live on the summit, but that is typically just a side story. This time was different. This time the main story was Marty, our cat.Four people from Powderhouse Productions arrived on the summit this morning to get footage and interviews for a show called Cats 101, which will air on