Strange Sounds 2008-01-20 19:31:26.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Winter View of The Summit The building has been making some strange sounds today. Rather than the usual wind induced rumble we have been hearing cracks and thuds as the metal support beams and steel reinforced concrete contracts in the cold Arctic air mass that moved in overnight. Some of the cracks have been quite impressive and really make you wonder what kind of stresses the beams are experiencing. Some of the thuds make you wonder if the beams are about to give up and come crashing down!Today has been downright

Life on the summit for two weeks 2008-01-19 20:38:55.000 - Lindsay Ventura,  Plymouth / Summit Intern My first undercast sunset Well I have been up here on the summit for eleven straight days now and it has been an incredible experience to say the least. The first day that we were up here, winds gusted up to 110 mph followed by 106 mph the day after! That following Sunday, I was woken up at 6:30 in the morning to watch the sun rise. At first I was a little upset about getting up and out of bed at such an

Snowflakes 2008-01-19 00:40:57.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL So, I will start this comment by saying thanks for everyone that left their feedback in the forums as to what to name the new cat. It seems that Marty will be the name of choice for the cat which is what we all expected and were hoping for. If you would still like to leave us feedback though, just click HERE.Next up, lets talk snow or lack there of. I am not saying that the summit is bare rock but it is definitely on the low side of what it

What is in a name. 2008-01-18 01:23:24.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Meteorologist Hello! My name is... As the proverb goes, “A rose will still smell the same, even if it called by another name.” This is certainly true, if a rose was called a bippity instead, it would still look and smell the same but it loses its appeal, form, and identity, especially when most of us can visualize a rose by name alone. But objects do get renamed from time to time to make them more appealing, appropriate, modern, simpler, or to generate buzz or controversy. You may read or

Marty on the Mountain! 2008-01-16 17:29:52.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Already getting comfortable.... The so called Electoral College met last Thursday and Friday to meet Marty, Wilson, and Sarah in person and make the final decision on who would become the next mascot of the Observatory. The Electoral College actually only consisted of myself and now former intern Aubrie. Ryan could not make it as he had travel plans on our week off.Each cat certainly made their impression on us. Sarah was friendly, but just seemed too shy for summit life. Wilson reminded me a lot of Nin. He was

NULL 2008-01-14 14:28:07.000 - Joshua Fisher,  Summit Intern Hiking on a perfect day Hello everyone,My name is Joshua Fisher and I am a junior meteorology major from Plymouth State University. I am interning on the summit for two weeks in a row! While up here, another Plymouth State intern and I will be working on a research project. In our two weeks we will be gathering and analyzing temperature and precipitation data for the past 71 years, relating this to climate change.Along with the project, I am up here for the experience and learning environment. As my first week nears

Beautiful day in the neighborhood 2008-01-13 13:39:42.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Everyone awake, bright and early A smile has been on my face since I woke up this morning. I could not ask for a better day. There are three very helpful, excited, early-rising interns on the summit this week, a third observer has been added to this shift (after two very grueling weeks of only two observers), and the weather is just amazing. Visibility is up to 120 miles; the ocean was clearly visible this morning, as was Sebago Lake, and mountains in Canada. Winds are as calm as

Introduction of Mr. Ryan Buckley 2008-01-11 11:37:31.000 - Ryan Buckley,  Summit Intern Nice Picture of Tower Hello Mt. Washington Cohorts,My name is Ryan Buckley I am a civil engineering student at Wentworth Institute of Technology and I will be the winter intern on Mike, Stacey and Kyle’s shift. I will be up here until the beginning of May when I start class for a required summer semester. Every intern has to work on a project up at the observatory. To make this an acceptable co-op with both the Mount Washington Weather Observatory and Wentworth an engineering school, I had to

The Return to the Summit 2008-01-10 10:17:16.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer NULL Life has lead me once again to the summit. I worked last winter as an intern, now returning to work as an IT Observer. Although I’ve only been gone 7 months, many changes have taken place. The server room has a solid UPS system in place, there are two new ceilometers on the observation deck, the summit is on grid power, and there are three observers per shift instead of two. Furthermore, you may recall from last year around this time that this shift seemed to lack

Results of the Mascot Primary! 2008-01-09 07:34:02.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer A rather snowless summit.... I know that most people are visiting the website this morning to see which cat-idate was victorious in our Mascot Primary. Well, I’m going to hold you in suspense for just another moment while I tell you about the weather we have been seeing on the summit. After all, our main reason for being here is to observe the weather, right? We haven’t talked much about the weather lately, mostly because of the excitement of the aforementioned Mascot Primary. In this observer’s humble opinion, one