So what are your plans? 2008-07-20 23:01:07.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Working on the summit, I get a lot of questions. The most common are “Where’s your cat?” or “What’s the weather doing up there?” Sometimes they are bizarre like “Where are the Presidents faces (they think we are Mount Rushmore)?” or “What do you guys eat?” But no matter the question, I always remember, there is no such thing as an incorrect question because if one person is asking it, odds are there is bound to be another wondering the same thing. Out of all the questions though,

Cleaning up the Cog 2008-07-19 18:44:46.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Lots of Junk There has been, and will continue to be a lot of construction work going on up here on the summit this summer. Most of it has to do with finishing the power line project, which was started last summer and put the summit on grid power for the first time ever.The part of this project that people are noticing, and questioning, the most these days actually involves the Cog Railroad. For many, many years, old railway timbers and other junk had been discarded to the side of

Exciting Final Shift 2008-07-18 21:16:23.000 - Matthew Morin,  Space Grant Intern Lenticular Clouds January 29th, 2008. That is a red letter day in the history of my life. I started my internship at the Mount Washington Observatory on that day and loved it from the start. At first, I couldn’t even fathom the idea that I would ever witness such an extensive variety of spectacular meteorological phenomena. Several months and hundreds of weather pictures later, I gathered my best photographs and posted them into my "Unusual Weather Phenomena Photo Gallery", a trilogy of Observer Comments. I’m thankful for having the

Marty 2008-07-17 17:08:14.000 - Marty,  Summit Cat Hello, Marty hereMmm it’s nice out.Think I’ll saunterLots of people around.They is ok.I like drink their water.Like to hide around corner.Like to hide in cave.Like to hide in box.Like to hide behind computer.What??Play time?! Bouncy, shiny, jingly!! Fun time.Toys in drawerMine! Not yours. We play again now?Play makes tired kitty. Sleep good hereSleep good here tooSee you next time.Meow leave me alone   Marty,  Summit Cat

volunteer comment 2008-07-16 07:37:07.000 - Patti and Deidra,  Summit Volunteers Sunrise Fog. Fog. Fog. Fog. Fog was the operative word this week. We had fog Wednesday after we got here. We had fog Thursday. We had fog Friday. We had fog Saturday during the Newton’s Revenge bike race. We had fog Sunday and Monday. Today? Today the summit of Mount Washington was blessed with sunshine and light winds. So, we experienced it all- our first magnificent sunrise at 5:06am, our first long hike off the summit down to Lakes, over to Boott Spur, and then back up to the summit

When Your Heads in the Fog 2008-07-15 05:58:30.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Patience, young grasshopper. I’ve been told sometimes my head’s in the fog, And after weeks like this, I just sit there and nod. There’s no use denying it, we all get a bit crazy When life passes like the weather, more than a little hazy.The grayness can get to you…at least let it storm. Rolling thunder, flashing lightening to brighten up the morn. There’s no chance for the sun – been playing hide and seek for days. Even the moon is temperamental, hoarding reflected rays.Wet rain and

Dennis 2008-07-14 11:59:55.000 - Dennis Vienneau,  Teacher Extern Can you see the virga? It seems that the daily observer comments requires the writer of the day to make some sort of reference to the clouds that we’re mostly embedded in. Today’s comments will continue along that vain. We've been in the clouds for the most part for this shift. We came up on Wednesday and it was clear for a few hours and then it was clear again late Saturday afternoon. I took advantage of the opportunity on Saturday to hike down from the Observatory to Ball Crag to stretch

L.L.Bean Man 2008-07-13 15:04:49.000 - Lisa Hodges,  Summit Intern Mr. L.L.Bean with volunteer Patti In the summit museum, a wire framed mannequin stands perched atop a display of alpine vegetation. L.L. Bean, one of our sponsors, has outfitted this mannequin with a nice red jacket (with our new logo, of course), along with hiking boots, snow pants, long underwear, gloves, hiking poles, and a backpack. Until Friday, the L.L. Bean man was held up by a set of wires and hiking poles. But mid-afternoon on Friday, with a full gift shop for an audience, the L.L. Bean man lost his

newtons revenge 2008-07-12 14:41:42.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern Waiting for the racers There was a bustle of excitement on the summit this morning for Newton's Revenge, an annual bike race up the auto road. The road was open from 6am and 8am for spectators to drive up, so the summit was full of people when I woke up. The Mount Washington Auto Road is known as the toughest hillclimb in the world, at 7.6 miles and 4700 vertical feet, making a 12% average grade.nnThere are two annual bike races on the auto road: Newton's Revenge in July, and the

Jefferson Snow Field 2008-07-11 13:36:20.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Jefferson Snow Field We finally broke out of the fog for a few hours this morning. As usual it was a very welcomed change that was enjoyed by everyone up here. Two things that were really noticeable were just how green the vegetation is looking now, especially around the Great Gulf area, and secondly how small the Jefferson snow field has become. nnIf you look carefully, just to the right of the center, of the main photo above there is a small white patch – yes that’s it - the