AccuWeather Partnership 2008-02-18 10:00:55.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Some melting going on It’s a soggy, rainy, windy day on the Rockpile. The temperature rose above the freezing mark early this morning causing rime ice to start falling off all the building and structures around the summit. In fact, Ryan was doing his observations with a helmet on last night because of all the falling ice. It seems that wind speeds peaked early this morning as well, with a peak gust of 105 mph. We haven’t seen winds sustained at 100 mph for a significant amount of time yet this season,

ARVTP and cake 2008-02-16 20:42:18.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Sunset Today we finally cleared out of the freezing fog and, although it was still cold and breezy, Ryan and I decided to hike down to the 5300 foot ARVTP site which had stopped working early this week. So what is an ARVTP site? ARVTP stands for Auto Road Vertical Temperature Profile, it’s basically a remote sensor site which records temperature data along the auto road, the results of which are relayed back to the summit via radio waves where they can be seen on our website. The ARVTP sites

Jeopardy! 2008-02-16 00:33:43.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL Snow, high winds, lowering temperatures, light snow, and blowing snow all make it hard to go out and have fun for any extended period of time. You can’t throw or kick a ball very well without losing it. It is days like today that it is nice to stay in and read a good book or watch some movies at the end of the day. At one time, the summit had television but even when we had it, we only watched three shows regularly: Judge Mathis, American Idol, and Jeopardy!. These

Delayed. 2008-02-14 22:29:19.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Another day comes to an end. It was an uneventful Thursday shift change. Wait a minute; something is not right with that last sentence. Spelling? No, spell check didn’t come up with any errors. Grammar? No, nothing came up when grammar check was used. So what could possible be wrong? If you frequent our observer comments, it may be fairly obvious but if not, you might be thinking nothing is wrong with my first sentence. But what is wrong is the word “Thursday.” Normally, our shift changes occur on Wednesdays but the

NULL 2008-02-13 10:38:11.000 - Charlie Lopresti,  Former Observer NULL The mountain does not disappoint! Brian Bechard and I arrived at the Observatory on Sunday with hopes of wind, cold, snow, sunrises, and sunsets. The mountain delivered! Monday was brutal on the summit. The temperature hit -21 F while winds gusted to 96 MPH. Live television is a challenge in those conditions. Equipment doesn’t work properly, and speaking with a frozen jaw is difficult. The summit broke out of the clouds during our live broadcast Tuesday morning. The sunrise was spectacular! I could easily see Casco Bay 65 miles to the

Changing Weatther 2008-02-11 15:47:06.000 - Ryan Buckley,  Summit Intern Iridescence The weather in the past 24 hours has been entertaining to watch on the charts and even more fun to experience. The day started out in the clouds with freezing fog, snow, blowing snow, no visibility and temperatures in the lower teens. This lasted until about 9:30AM. Then the sky broke giving us a visibility of about 70 miles for approximately one and a half hours. The temp rose a few degrees, and the clouds lifted their veil to a spectacular view of cloud layering that blanketed all but a

Ira 2008-02-10 04:58:12.000 - Summit Volunteer,  Summit Volunteer NULL Constant Change. Not an oxymoron. Having been a volunteer up here since the program began I have seen visitors become interns become observers become TV star meteorology Gurus. I have met and had wonderful conversations with feline carbon based life form units from Inga to Jasper to Nin to my newest friend Marty on the Mountain (not to be confused with the former Marty on the Mountain). As a volunteer I have conjured up global gourmet gastronomical epicurean edibles for countless staff; visiting scientists; media people; motion picture crews (and of

Ruminations on the Universe 2008-02-09 05:36:14.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer NULL Waking up to the summit in the clear, with clouds above and clouds below was definitely a surprise this afternoon. It was a surprise because I was absolutely sure we’d be in the clouds all day. That’s the weather on Mount Washington for you: fickle, challenging, and the producer of many marvels. Overnight, also unexpected, stars were abundant (they are always abundant, but most times we cannot see them), Orion, the Big and Little Dippers, the Gemini, the Milky Way, and even a shooting star were all crystal clear,

The Wonder of Snow 2008-02-07 22:15:51.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Hiking Back in a Void Snow has finally ceased to fall upon the summit, in a gentle downward fashion. The last 36 hours have produced quite an unusual scene here on the summit, as the observation deck has nearly half a foot of snow covering it, much more in other places where it has drifted several feet. Without the sound of the generators, one can hear the snow pattering on one’s jacket. It has made for an uncommon kind of peacefulness up here. It has been fun to go

Communications Uh-Oh! 2008-02-07 11:02:44.000 - Kyle Paddleford,  Observer Keep Sawing! Well it has been one of those rare storms on the summit where winds are light and the snow falls straight down instead of flying right on by. There is even a substantial layer of snow out on the observation deck. Places that usually get scoured clean, have been receiving accumulating snow. It is nice while it lasts, but the wind will always return after taking some time off. It always does!After a smooth shift change yesterday with relatively little blade work to be done by our tractor operator Wayne