Lady of the Rime! 2008-01-25 20:08:56.000 - Kyle Paddleford,  Observer Smile! If you ever have a problem waking up early in the morning and quickly falling back to sleep, or feeling like the walking dead, I have the perfect solution. You take a temperature of 17 degrees below zero, add some wind in the 80 mph range, go outside, and then get shaken and stirred and you have the prefect recipe for an instant exhilarating wake up. Doubling the recipe is not suggested. Those were the conditions that Ryan and I faced around quarter of six this morning while getting

Creepy nights 2008-01-24 15:02:35.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer NULL “So you’re working nights this week?” This is what Kyle asked me yesterday afternoon. I figured, since I haven’t ever worked nights, and since he’s been working them since December, I’d give him a break and begin my night time adventure. So far, everything is ok. There is definitely something to it when those night observers talk about how eerie it can be at night though. Nothing particularly scary happened last night, but when I went out to get the precip can, at 0030 EST, my imagination started to run away.

Volunteer comments 2008-01-22 17:37:54.000 - Steve Moore,  Summit Volunteer Curious Cat. This is my ninth time visiting the summit, always in winter, and it's always different, except that Nin has always been here and now he has retired to the Valley. His replacement, Marty, is very black and difficult to see at night when the lights are out except for his bright yellow eyes. He is quite inquisitive and has spent a lot of time exploring cabinets, drawers and closets. Marty is also very acrobatic when playing with a mouse or ball much to the enjoyment of all of us.

Wind issues. 2008-01-21 23:45:34.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Problems with our winds... Back when I was in college, I was required to take a number of general education courses. These courses where usually fun but what made them interesting were their sizes. My meteorology classes only had about five students where as my general education lectures would have upwards of one hundred people or more crammed in a lecture hall. But despite the class size, a handful of phrases were always repeated on the first day of each class in one way or another. One of them was, “Don’t

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