Country Roads...Mount Washington Edition! 2019-05-20 11:25:35.000 - John King, Summit Intern   Country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong, the White Mountains! Howdy, my name is John King and I am the new summer summit intern. I am originally from Barkhamsted, Connecticut. I have spent the last 3 years at West Virginia University studying environmental and energy resource management. Before you ask, yes it is a state, and no it is not the Western part of Virginia. With grandparents doing 60 years of volunteering on the AMC, and parents who have strong passions for walking among the

Goodbye MWOBS! 2019-05-19 07:20:25.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   As my second internship comes to a close, I have had a chance to think upon all the incredible experiences I have had in the past 9 months. When I started my fall internship last August, I had no idea the unbelievable journey I was about to partake in. I was excited to have the chance to live in a remote location while also getting a chance to learn more about forecasting and conduct some research. I didn’t know I was going to experience 171 mph winds, 6 foot drifts

Spring Cleaning and Spring Volunteers 2019-05-18 15:22:11.000 - Taylor Regan, Weather Observer/Research Specialist   Happy spring from the summit of Mount Washington! No, I know it’s not the first day of spring, but with nearly a week above freezing, things are finally starting to feel like we’re heading away from winter, if only a little behind the rest of the region. I wanted to take a few moments and talk about what spring looks like up here in the alpine zone, because there’s a lot going on! It starts with the visitors. As the snows melt and conditions become slightly

What is a Wintery Mix? 2019-05-14 15:44:36.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   We’ve reached the time of year where you may often hear phrases such as “a mix of precipitation” or even “a wintery mix of precipitation” in the forecast product you peruse. And you may find yourself wondering what exactly that means. Why can’t meteorologist just tell you that it’s going to rain or snow? Well, unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Allow me to explain. Precipitation forecasting is one of the more difficult tasks a meteorologist faces for a number of reason. Current technology

Bring on the Snow! 2019-05-13 12:58:02.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Once again there is snow in the forecast for the summit of Mount Washington. Snow storms like this one are always exciting up here, no matter the season, at least for me anyways. This storm has been fairly complicated to forecast for due to weak dynamics aloft. This is really to be expected at this time of the year as the jet stream weakens and there is not as big of a temperature gradient between the north pole and the equator to help increase baroclinicity (One of

Visiting Us Information 2019-05-06 08:44:16.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   Rising temperatures and melting snow often marks the transition between a brutal winter season and a more favorable summer season where buildings on the summit have the opportunity to open to the public. Although preparations must still be completed before all services can be open, I wanted to take this opportunity to give people the resources they will need to plan a trip up to the summit this summer any hopefully answer questions concerning this transition season. Mount Washington Observatory: Our Weather Discovery Center in North Conway is open

Turning 30 on Mount Washington! 2019-04-30 20:24:01.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Last Wednesday I hit a milestone in my life. On the way up to the summit, I turned 30 years old! Admittedly, I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be at home with my family to celebrate surviving 30 trips around the sun. Fortunately, the Mountain had some awesome presents to give me! And I am very grateful for the experiences I had as a result. This has been my first winter season here on the summit. And there have been plenty of adventures throughout

Back to Truck and Van Season 2019-04-26 12:30:33.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Winter seems like it has come to a fairly abrupt end up here on the Rockpile this year which is quite the difference from the previous few years. We went from having plenty of snow on the mountain from top to bottom taking the snow cat from the base up to just using the truck and van the whole way in only a matter of weeks. All this warm weather and rain melted the snow fast and allowed for the Auto road to make significant

Happy Earth Day! 2019-04-22 10:07:30.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   Today is Earth Day which means it is a great day to recognize the beautiful planet we live on and the vast number of species that inhabit the planet with us. Living and working on the top of Mount Washington gives us the unique opportunity to experience the extreme weather that this area sees as well see the incredible sights on a daily basis. Not many places in the world can you go from a day of sunny skies and light winds to recording a peak wind gust of

Signs of Spring 2019-04-19 15:30:09.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist    Photos taken by Weather Observer Ryan Knapp of the progression of our melting snow pack ahead of the weekend rain.  Signs of spring are finally working their way into the surrounding valleys here of northern New England, with most of our snow melted here in the North Conway area. Spring birds have been here for the last few weeks, and we even had a few sightings here on the summit of Mount Washington! With rain currently falling as of this writing and temperatures in the 40s, it makes